Time to Resurrect Technology in Rochester

Some schools talk a good technology game, but few walk the talk.

I find this to be particularly disturbing because technology has so much to offer. It can reduce costs by helping to improve productivity. It can provide a much richer lesson in (or out of) the classroom. It can provide customized and self-paced learning experience for students. It can be used to collect and analyze data, which can lead to curriculum improvement. And, it's an oustanding communication tool.

The Detroit News covers a few good examples of technology use:

The Detroit News: Byte-size classes growing (10/29/07)
The Detroit News: Computer access turns the page on textbooks (10/29/07)

Sadly, I believe the Rochester school board is particularly tolerant of poor technology management in the district. Consider these few examples:

• The community generously provided over $6 million in technology dollars in 2004, and much of it is sitting idly in a bank account. Some of it has been robbed to pay for cost overruns in other parts of the $65 million dollar bond project.
  
  
• The district continues to purchase Dell computers at a cost of approximately $1400 per computer. I challenge you to go to the Dell website and try to configure a computer that costs that much!
  
  
• The district paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the entire district wireless. It took years to implement, primarily due to poor research at the beginning of the project, and poor management throughout the implementation. It's still spotty service at best. And now that it is "working", I have yet to see any presentation that shows a significant benefit to the teachers, students, or taxpayers.
  
  
• Individual citizens are able to capture the Rochester City Council meetings, and stream them on a private website within hours of recording them. The City of Rochester Hills streams their meetings online, so that citizens can view them at their convenience. The Rochester School board won't even discuss it! Furthermore, it could setup RSS feeds to communicate with parents, students, etc. The state superintendent podcasts messages to educators. They're a quick and creative way to communicate. All of these are big communication bangs for almost no dollars!
  
  
• The Rochester Foundation raised a substantial amount of money to purchase SmartBoards... one for each of our 21 schools. But there is no cohesive plan to develop, implement, or share lesson plans that use this exciting technology. This subject has been discussed by some on the Foundation's board, and even discussed in committee by the Rochester School Board, but nothing has been done to address what I see as a problem.
  

I could go on, but I think I've made my point.

What's worse, this is not "sour grapes" that they reject my technology ideas. It's that I cannot recall a single new or innovative major technology initiative since my time on the board. There is just no vision.

Fortunately there are a few "evangelicals" in the district who are making things happen. It's individual teachers using email. It's teachers who have taken this Smartboard technology and started to use it in the way it was intended -- and beyond. It's teachers that take the time to update their website daily, or are diving into the Pearson Learning project. There are exciting examples of teachers and principals who have conceived and implemented a wide variety of lessons that integrated all kinds of technology in a rich and meaningful way.

But I find it disturbing that this vision and excitement is being driven by small pockets of individuals, and is not coming from those in leadership positions. I believe the board is failing the children of this district -- and the teachers -- by allowing this to continue.

This is a long entry because I've posted both articles below in case the links don't work.

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Byte-size classes growing
Michigan Tech, other universities post lectures to iTunes U, for use from Houghton to China.
Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

With 10 minutes to kill before another class, Aaron McPhall cracks out a video iPod.

But instead of "Family Guy" or "Futurama," the Michigan Technological University student watches "Physics 1600."

Since the school partnered with Apple to make college lectures as easily downloadable as Britney Spears' "Gimme More," students like McPhall can watch or listen to lectures on their own time.

"I wish I could pause and rewind other courses I've taken," said McPhall, a senior from Mount Pleasant who earned an 'A' his recent "Intro to Astronomy" video course. "It's a great model to have for the class. It allows the student to control the lectures."

About 250 schools around the nation use Apple's iTunes U service to manage their audio and video academic content, but Michigan Tech is one of just 28 -- and the only one in Michigan -- that have made all their content public and free on Apple's iTunes Store, where millions of people worldwide already get their music, movies and TV shows.

On average, a half-dozen Michigan Tech professors per semester choose to offer their courses through Apple's iTunes U. About 1,300 lectures are downloaded each week by students enrolled in the course and by curious learners from as far away as China.

The service has been a great marketing tool for the university in Houghton. Professors say iTunes U has helped boost students' grades, and students who still go to class like reviewing the recorded lectures.

"Many students are very familiar and comfortable with the iTunes interface," said Patty Lins, director of education technology and online learning at Michigan Tech. "They get their music, their games, their TV that way. And this was just a way to get their coursework as well."

Professors, with microphones clipped to their shirts, hold iTunes classes in studios on campus, sitting behind what looks like a TV anchor desk and saying things like "we are on the air now" or "welcome back."

Steady cameras toggle seamlessly from head shots to PowerPoint presentations and professors' lecture notes.

"I always have to be aware of what the students are seeing," said Christopher Cischke, a lecturer in electrical and computer engineering, who teaches three audio and one video course.

Cischke trades in his typical cargo pants and untucked shirt for dressier clothes when he'll be on camera. After all, he's representing the university to the viewers around world, he says.

"It's been a very positive experience," Cischke said. "It requires very little extra work on my part but it seems like it's made an overall impact on grades."

Students still have to take quizzes and exams in class, so attendance hasn't dropped too much, he said.

Cischke's podcast lectures have been helpful to John van der Laan, a 20-year-old junior on the football team who often misses lectures for game travel.

"In most classes, this means I need to talk with the professors about what I missed and generally I need to teach myself the material," van der Laan said. "(Now) I am able to listen to the podcasts at home, or on the road in a hotel room, and receive almost all the instruction that I missed."

Apple partnered in 2005 with six pilot universities -- Duke, Brown, the University of Michigan's Dental School, Stanford, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and University of Wisconsin-Madison -- to test iTunes in the academic world.

Last year, iTunes opened up the service to other colleges, and Michigan Tech was one of the early adopters. In May Apple added iTunes U to its online store, the wildly popular digital window to Apple's six million songs, 600 television shows and 500 movies. Many colleges have hesitated to make all their material available in the store for a variety of reasons, including intellectual property concerns.

But physics professor Robert Nemiroff is happy Michigan Tech is one of the few that have, as sharing the educational material with as many people as possible is important, he says.

Nemiroff, whose astronomy course has been among the top iTunes U downloads, just received an e-mail from a college student in China curious about astronomy.

Nemiroff teaches two sections of "Intro to Astronomy." One is billed as an online-only course, and the other is a traditional class. Yet he treats them exactly the same, doing only one live lecture, rich with pictures of comets, eclipses and planets. All assignments and quizzes are online, and students can send questions electronically.

Asked if he misses students, Nemiroff said "a little bit, but I think it's kind of cool to be on the cutting edge to have a completely online course."


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Computer access turns the page on textbooks
As CDs, Web sites replace books, some fear students without home computers could be left behind.
Charles E. Ramirez / The Detroit News
ROMEO -- Paper or plastic?

Romeo Community Schools in northern Macomb County has started offering some freshmen a choice in their American history classes -- a traditional textbook or a CD-ROM containing the same material, which can be read on a computer.

Administrators like the technology, but not everyone is cheering as Metro Detroit schools explore disks as alternatives to heavy, expensive and quickly out-of-date texts.

Some fear the switch may make old-fashioned book learning fall by the wayside or create a digital divide, leaving behind those without home computers.

The issue reared its head this fall in Romeo when the district offered the high-tech tools for the first time. Students can choose a book, CD-ROMs or a Web site that offers bonuses such as interactive maps, flashcards and educational games.

"The technology is allowing us to take textbooks to a whole new level," said Shannon Griffin, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the district.

Computers may be great, but so are books, said Mike Stobak, a school board member who has three children in the district.

"Having a textbook is a part of helping kids become responsible as they grow up," he said.

"They learn about taking care of their textbooks, not losing them and the consequences of not doing those things."

The technology behind the digital school books has been around for years -- the publishing companies that sell textbooks to school districts have included the same content on CD-ROMs and access to Web sites featuring online editions with the purchase of book sets.

Across the country, public school districts in California, Florida and Texas offer students electronic versions of class textbooks.

And in Metro Detroit, districts such as Lake Orion and Plymouth-Canton have been using Web site- and CD-ROM-based textbooks for years.

Advocates say the technologies have several advantages over their paper counterparts.

They help students avoid injuries from overstuffed backpacks. Those concerns prompted Plymouth-Canton Community Schools to use more technology, in part because the district has three high schools -- Canton, Plymouth and Salem -- spread out over a 305-acre campus. School officials were concerned students could hurt their backs lugging books between them.

Proponents said disks and Web sites also offer the freedom of mobility and are easier to update.

"Often the information in a textbook can be out of date by the time we purchase it," said Ken Gutman, assistant superintendent of Lake Orion Community Schools.

"But students have access to the latest information in online textbooks, because it's so much easier for the publishers to update it on their Web-based textbooks."

The technology may also help districts meet the state's new rigorous high school graduation requirements, said Joe Beck, Romeo superintendent.

The state adopted the tougher new graduation requirements, which call for more math and science, in April 2006. For instance, Beck said, there isn't a single math textbook that has lessons that meet all of those requirements. And since most districts like his don't have the money to buy several books for a single class, CD-ROM- and Web-based textbooks may be the perfect solution, he said.

And arguably the most appealing to Michigan public school districts, in an age of budget crunches and cutbacks in state financial aid, is that it enables school systems to purchase fewer sets of textbooks and save money.

The Romeo district has saved about $10,000 by making the CD-ROM and Web site textbooks available to students in its ninth-grade American history class at Romeo High School, said Griffin.

The school has 517 students taking the class, and rather than purchase 517 textbooks, it bought 400, she said. Students can choose to be assigned a textbook for the class or use either the CD-ROM or Web edition.

"It allowed us to shift resources," Griffin said. "Now we can use that $10,000 to put technology -- such as a digital projector -- in that social studies classroom."

Still, some school officials and parents feel the technology has shortcomings. Some families don't have computers or high-speed Internet access. And others have more than one child, and if they all have to use the computer to study or do homework, it can create backlogs.

"I think we're going about it backwards," said Jennifer White, a trustee on the Board of Education of Romeo Community Schools with a daughter who is a student in the district.

"I think we need to put technology in our schools, not send it home."

Romeo High School parent Sue Saliga said the technology should be used only as a supplement to textbooks because not everyone has a computer or high-speed Internet at home.

"The technology has a problem: Not every student is a visual learner," said Saliga, an Oakland University professor.

Her sons Nathan, 16, and Steven, 15, use digital technology in school. Steven said his experience with the technology has been mixed. Earlier this school year, the sophomore's biology teacher attempted to get him and his classmates to use the Internet version of the class textbook, but recently told them to stop because the Web site would bog down, Steven Saliga said.

"It was also hard because not everyone has high-speed Internet at home, so we wasted a lot of class time going to the library to use the computers there to log on," he said.

However, Steven Saliga also has a Java computer programming class where the students' only access to a textbook is through a Web site.

And he says he prefers the electronic versions of textbooks over thick bricks of paper and ink.

"It's easier to read textbooks on the computer," he said.

"I'd rather not have to carry around a bunch of books."

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Dual Enrollment... Put it on your radar

I read this article from Jay Mathews and felt pangs of guilt...

Washington Post: Dual Enrollment Courses -- Up From Obscurity (10/23/07)

My guilt comes from not pressing this issue more in Rochester.

I raised the issue several times with the board, hoping to spark some interest in expanding dual enrollment. But of course, I had no luck. Something's only considered worthwhile by this board if we're already doing it.

Dual enrollment is offered in Rochester, but I've heard from parents who explain that one really needs to jump through hoops for "the privledge" of dual enrollment. In the end, I suspect it's all about the money. The board is willing to put money into purchasing a $60,000 postage machine, but doesn't have enough to expand dual-enrollment opportunities.

There are some good examples locally. Dearborn has very strong ties with Henry Ford Community College. I'm told that many students will graduate from high school already having earned college credits, with some approach enough credits to simultaneously earn an associates degree. Howell School district just build Parker High, which shares space with Livingston Community College. There are some safety issues to address at Parker (with college students and college professors), but pioneers oftentimes face problems and I think it's a great concept and worthy of the startup headaches.

It's amazing to me that Rochester Community Schools doesn't do more in conjunction with Oakland University. We're right in their backyard, and perhaps if we can raise parental and student interest in dual enrollment, it'll pressure the Rochester board into doing the right thing for our kids.

The report referenced in the article can be found here.

Here is the whole Washington Post article in case the link doesn't work:


Dual Enrollment Courses -- Up From Obscurity

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 23, 2007; 12:12 PM

I have lost track of how many articles and columns I have written about Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, the college-level high school courses whose rapid growth have been the most beneficial development in secondary education in the last two decades. At the same time, sadly, I have overlooked another college-level offering, the dual enrollment course. These college courses taken by high schoolers have been hard to analyze because they come in so many varieties and because so little research has been done on their effects.

Their status as a neglected cousin of AP and IB is beginning to change, however. National organizations are promoting their expansion, and, for the first time, scholars are assessing their impact. The most interesting research so far came out just last week. The title is pretty dull -- "The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States," -- but the information produced for the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota is exciting.

Dual enrollment courses are usually community college or four-year college courses taken by high school students, either at the college or at their high schools with instructors paid by, or at least supervised by, the college. Looking at the records of 299,685 dual enrollment students in Florida, the researchers found that taking dual enrollment courses correlated to higher rates of high school graduation, enrollment in two-year and four-year colleges and academic performance in college. Students who took dual enrollment courses while enrolled in Florida high schools had higher college grade point averages and more college credits three years after high school graduation than similar students who had not done dual enrollment.

A review of the records of 2,303 New York students found those in the "College Now" dual enrollment program were more likely to pursue a bachelor's degree and have better college grades their first semester than students of similar backgrounds who did not do dual enrollment.

Despite the evidence that these college courses -- like AP and IB -- give high school students a taste of college rigor that can bring college success, the researchers reported that many students are being denied a chance to take them. The ill-considered limits on high schoolers who want to take college-level courses is also a big problem for AP, and suggests that most of our high school administrators and many state education officials are in dire need of an attitude adjustment.

Report authors Melinda Mechur Karp, Juan Carlos Calcagno, Katherine L. Hughes, Dong Wook Jeong and Thomas R. Bailey are with the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. They found that students are often barred from credit-earning dual enrollment college courses if they do not maintain a certain high school grade point average or cannot pass a placement test.

In Florida, they say, a high school student must have an unweighted 3.0 average in high school and pass a placement test to qualify for dual enrollment, unless the college course is technical or vocational. The colleges in New York City that oversee dual enrollment courses have similar bans on students who do not pass placement tests. Karp told me a federal survey concluded that about 85 percent of colleges with dual enrollment courses restrict access in this way.

There are good reasons for colleges to keep college students -- repeat, college students -- out of their for-credit courses until they are ready. It remains to be seen whether their qualification rules are reasonable. I have heard some complaints about them and plan to look into the issue.

I think it makes much less sense for colleges to keep motivated high school students out of college-level courses. The high schoolers who give these courses a try may indeed fail them, but after interviewing AP and IB students for the last 26 years, I have yet to find anyone who thinks that struggling in a college level course in high school is anything but a beneficial experience. The alternative to an AP or IB course is often a regular course designed in many ways to keep students and parents happy with good grades for little work. That is not the way to prepare students for the foot-high reading lists and two-hour exams they find when they get to college.

For a long time, high schools have routinely prohibited students from taking AP courses unless they have a strong B average or a teacher's recommendation. Research by the College Board, based on the strong PSAT scores of many of those average B and C students, show that many would be capable of doing well in AP courses if the barriers were lifted. School districts in such places as Fairfax County, Va., and Guilford County, N.C., have discovered that if AP courses are opened to all students regardless of their academic records, many newcomers would do well on the AP exams when given enough extra time and encouragement.

Mindful of the similar impediments to getting into dual enrollment courses, the authors of the report urge a loosening of restrictive eligibility requirements. Federal data show that despite recent growth, the number of schools that offer dual enrollment and the number of students who take the courses lag behind AP, which only reaches about 25 percent of high school students. The authors conclude that many more students would benefit from the opportunity if given a chance.

Gillian B. Thorne, a national activist on dual enrollment and director of the Early College Experience Program at the University of Connecticut, endorsed the report's recommendation. She said her program lets high schools decide who takes the college courses. "We set absolutely no threshold," she said.

It would be useful to hear from readers how dual enrollment eligibility works in their high schools. I can't tell how much of a problem the grade point and placement test restrictions are until I have more information. As the report authors say, there is very little useful data. Their research is a good start, but we have a long way to go.

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"No Child Left Behind", Expectations, and Accountability

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to post this, because I'm sure that some will misintrepret the message offered by the author.

Detroit News: Why 'No Child' was needed (10/25/07)

I guess it all depends on expections and accountability.

I've included the article below in case the link doesn't work:

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Why 'No Child' was needed
Karin Chenoweth

A very odd notion is circulating these days that the No Child Left Behind law has forced schools to become boring, dull places where children do endless worksheets and are discouraged from thinking for themselves. This argument holds that under "No Child," students are forced to simply regurgitate what teachers tell them, which -- because of flawed standardized tests -- is often confusing and sometimes demonstrably false. Get rid of the tests, or at least pay less attention to their results, critics say, and schools can return to their pre-"No-Child" excellence.

Particularly with Congress considering reauthorization of the law, versions of this argument are heard almost any time No Child Left Behind is discussed. I find it very puzzling.

I keep wondering: Don't the people making this and similar arguments know that long before No Child Left Behind, far too many classrooms were boring, dull places where children were forced to do endless worksheets, discouraged from independent thinking and subjected to teachers providing confusing and sometimes demonstrably false information?

For example, my eighth-grade history teacher in suburban New Jersey taught that the American system of slavery was fair not only to the slaveholders but also to the slaves. He did not present his assessment as opinion but fact, and (hard as it is to believe today) was backed up by the textbook we studied. At least he tried to teach us something. My eighth-grade science teacher told our class point-blank, "You aren't going to college anyway, so it doesn't matter what I do." He didn't teach much of anything, and his class was a zoo, teetering on dangerous. My elementary school teachers had been able to control their classrooms, but they didn't teach a whole lot of history, science, art or music. In introducing a unit on batteries, for instance, my fifth-grade teacher said: "I don't like science either, but we are supposed to cover this." She never bothered finding out whether we learned anything about batteries -- tedious "covering" was enough.

Educators often complain that every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he's an expert because he went to school, so I try not to draw too many conclusions from my personal experiences. But they are consistent with every serious history of education I have read, and they are hardly unusual. Most baby boomers I have talked with consider themselves lucky if they had one or two really good teachers in their school careers -- which means they sat through a lot of not-so-good instruction.

Fast-forward to my children's educational experience in Montgomery County, Md. Now in college, my daughters went to public school before No Child Left Behind was passed and as it was taking effect. Though in many ways they had an education superior to mine, they both had their share of tedious, confusing and demonstrably false instruction.

In fact, once they entered middle school, I noticed that if there was no outside assessment, it was a tossup whether the teachers taught much of anything at all. Sixth-grade English was pretty much a waste for my older daughter, in part because her teacher spent inordinate amounts of class time updating her computerized inventory of Beanie Babies.

Ninth-grade science was the same, with the teacher handing out worksheets and then answering e-mail and playing computer games. In honors chemistry, the teacher endlessly shared his low opinion of the principal, students and their parents. He didn't bother to teach much chemistry.

Those teachers were able to get away with such low levels of instruction because no outside assessment held them responsible for whether their students learned anything.

My younger daughter, more than her sister, benefited from two trends now sweeping the country: accountability and rigorous curriculum. Because her high school adopted the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which has assessments scored by professionals outside the school she attended, my younger daughter enjoyed both a high-level curriculum and teachers who were not afraid of being held accountable.

Every child deserves that. The International Baccalaureate curriculum may be a bit of overkill, but a deep, rich curriculum that aims at helping children become educated citizens should be available to every child.

If teachers have little incentive to teach anything that is not on the state tests, we should fix that. Teachers need to be supported by good standards and curriculum, high-quality materials, orderly learning environments, and rigorous assessments. They certainly shouldn't be focused only on teaching what is tested by what are mostly low-level state assessments.

But people should keep in mind that if there are no tests, some teachers have little incentive to teach anything at all.

Karin Chenoweth is the author of "It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools." Distributed by the Washington Post.

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Performance-based Teacher licensing offers a career path!

Who could possibly be opposed to this, aside from the MEA?

Detroit News: Teacher rating plan would raise quality (10/23/07)

This sounds very similar to the merit pay plan I wrote about last April offered by the Center for Teacher quality.

I couldn't find any details on the Michigan Department of Education's website, other than this, so drop me a line if you hear more.

Here is the text of the "right on the mark" Detroit News article, in case the link doesn't work:

Teacher rating plan would raise quality
The Detroit News

Imagine a boss who never considers your work performance for job promotions or licensing. That would be a joke in most fields -- and it's shocking that it isn't in the teaching profession.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan is trying to change that with his new effort to improve Michigan's teacher licensing system.

The bold reforms, rolled out this month, were developed by a committee of parents, higher education experts, K-12 educators and policymakers during the past year. They want to make state teacher licensing and license renewals based more on teachers' actual impact on students' learning and less on credentials such as advanced degrees, improvement courses and time on the job -- the basis of Michigan's current system.

Under the Flanagan-led plan, Michigan's licensing process would become a three-tiered, performance-based system. Teachers' performance would be evaluated repeatedly to ensure high standards throughout teachers' careers -- and better teaching for students.

At tier one, young teachers' performance and teacher preparation training will be considered. At tier two, the state will continue to assess performance before renewing teachers' licenses.

At tier three, teachers who want to become "senior teachers" would voluntarily meet even higher standards. Seasoned teachers like the idea because it gives them an opportunity to advance without becoming administrators.

This also provides an objective mechanism for administrators to reward teachers who continue to strive for excellence. And it's a smart way to retain experienced, high-quality teachers, which Michigan needs as it ramps up its standards and high school curriculum.

Flanagan's ideas make so much common sense, they will be surely attacked by teachers' unions and their advocates. The public and political leaders need to make sure these reforms are not gutted to become meaningless.

Expect a fight about who will design the teacher evaluation assessments and how assessments will be done. It will be easy to water down such evaluations.

So any state committee charged with developing the assessment must not be over-weighted with representatives of the Michigan Education Association and AFT Michigan.

Another caveat: If Michigan's student achievement tests and passing standards continue to be lowered -- as the state has done twice in recent years -- then tying teacher performance evaluations to their students' test scores would help make these reforms meaningless.

"We have some schools where students can practically pass themselves on tests, they're so easy," says State Board of Education member Marianne McGuire, a Democrat.

To address this pitfall, Flanagan is proposing Michigan use what is called the growth model, an objective, technology-based method of tracking teachers' impact on individual student learning compared with students' previous ability. This system takes into consideration schools' socioeconomic challenges -- one of the MEA's major criticisms -- and allows for districts to pinpoint the teachers whose students consistently fall behind.

That tool would make it increasingly difficult for the worst teachers to hide in their classrooms and keep up their licenses.

"We want to be in the top 10, not only for football, but for education," Flanagan says.

Teacher quality is one of the most important influences on student achievement. For students' sake, state policymakers need to make sure special interests do not curtail the implementation of these courageous improvements.

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Diluting Rigor with "Positive Energy"

There are two board seats up for election for the Rochester Community School district, and there are seven candidates for those seats.

Here is what one of them had to say in the local paper today:

Rochester Eccentric: Talbert focused on student success (10/21/07)

I know candidate Beth Talbert. She's an intelligent, nice person who has been involved in the district for some time. I served with her on a committee, and in that particular setting I felt she truly wanted to improve rigor in the district. I like her. But outside of that setting I continue to hear this same alarming message over and over, which suggests that there is some "status quo" thinking swirling around in her:

"Clearly college success and employment success has a lot more to do with other factors than just whether or not you took AP exams," she said. "In no way do I want to minimize that; I absolutely think we should be encouraging that. But that's a very small segment of our school population. So what I personally would like to do is just broaden this dialogue. What about the other 90 percent of our students?"

That might be fine if the district were too focused on AP, but it's not. Michigan is in the bottom half of states when ranked by AP exams taken per thousand upperclassmen, and Rochester ranks below it's peer groups by almost any measure. And there is no official board-level effort whatsoever to change that. None. Zero. Zip.

But the larger problem I see with this kind of thinking is that it's the same kind of "positive energy -- no meat" thinking that has been used to dilute academics in this district for years.

I've got to wonder how that statement would play in Grosse Pointe, Okemos, Troy, Bloomfield, Jenison, Forest Hills, East Lansing, Birmingham, East Grand Rapids, or any of the other districts that are helping lead their children in great numbers to high levels achievement.

But let me be clear: This posting here is not about this particular candidate, but instead is meant to focus on the underlying philosophy I find so harmful to public education. I've been battling it for my three years with sitting Rochester board members and some district administrators.

For years, the unwritten philosophy in Rochester -- and many other districts -- has been that AP is only for the "top students." The district didn't allow sophomores to take AP classes. The high school course catalogue is chocked-full of electives designed to provide "choice" for students who are not "AP Caliber"; classes like "Wilderness Survival" and "Guitar", and classes that teach "checkbook math" and cooking.

While the article contains the obligatory, "In no way do I want to minimize that (AP Participation); I absolutely think we should be encouraging that" comment, there seems to be a very clear effort to divert attention from AP.

In fact, the very next statement again reinforces the misconception that AP is for the elite, "But that's a very small segment of our school population... What about the other 90 percent of our students?"

Good question. What ABOUT the other 90 percent? Why aren't they being directed to the type of rigorous work that will prepare them to compete with other students for seats at selective universities?

The article goes on with the kinds of statements that are common in education:

"What if your student is a C student? Wouldn't it be great if our emphasis was on helping that student become a B student," she says. "Or the B-minus student becoming an A-minus student. Or the student who has no interest in college - hates coming to school - what are we doing to make sure in this economy they can get a job right after high school? ... I don't feel that we are focusing enough on the big picture."

Aside from the very last sentence, who on earth would be opposed to any of what was said? Shouldn't the school already be doing that? And who can tell what that means? Is that a proposal to design some sort of intervention strategy?

No, it's simply "feel good" stuff.

In fact, I'd bet that statement could be used by any candidate in any district in any of the past 10 years, and it would fit just fine.

This approach really concerns me because it's based on the appearance that the district needs to stop focusing on these elite "high achievers" and get back to the basics. That concern is completely unfounded, and there is no evidence that the Rochester school board has been focusing on AP (despite my efforts to change that!) In fact, if anything, the board has been too preoccupied with this "big picture" thing instead of focusing on anything in particular, and does far too little to focus on challenging all students.

The effort to "focus on the big picture" diverts attention from the small, measurable, attainable goals, that can be used to improve a school. See my previous blog posting on "The Great MEAP Disconnect" to see how "the big picture" is applied in Rochester.

Increasing student achievement at all levels is a philosophy, not a goal.

Public education will continue to flounder until it starts setting small, defined, meaningful and measurable goals, which target BOTH at-risk students and talented learners.

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The Great MEAP Disconnect

There's not a lot of comparison or benchmarking data to be found on Michigan schools. Data beyond the MEAP, that is. The MEAP is the only game in town. And despite the complaints about the MEAP lodged by the education community, I suspect they'd work pretty hard to keep the MEAP if there was any talk of switching to a nationally-normed test.

We saw this when there was talk of switching from the high-school MEAP to the Michigan Merit Exam (MME), which is based on the ACT college entrance exam.

Fortunately those who are data-driven won out over those who are, well, less driven.

Switching was the right thing to do. The recently released results help paint a much better picture of just how much work we have ahead of us.

And now comes Liam Julian of the Fordham Foundation with some strong ammunition showing that a similar move in elementary school would be appropriate too.

Detroit News: Michigan's tests leave children behind (10/10/07)

Here is a link to Fordham's great report, "The Proficiency Illusion"

I saw tangible evidence of this MEAP disconnect at my last Rochester board meeting and asked again for a nationally-normed test in Elementary. During a discussion on setting academic goals (don't get too excited... this conversation's been ongoing for a year and a half), several on the board (a majority, in fact) indicated they were content maintaining the district's "95th percentile" MEAP achievements in several subjects.

That percentile ranking means that Rochester students score better than 95% of the districts in Michigan. Certainly admirable.

But in sixth grade, when students take their first national test, they land in the low 70th percentile range for reading/language, and 84th for math. What does this tell us, when these same sixth graders are still in the 96th/97th percentile range on the MEAP?

What this means is that Rochester is in the top echelon of Michigan schools, but that doesn't mean much on a national basis.

In short, there is a great disconnect between the MEAP results, and the results seen on nationally-normed tests.

My suggestion to look at a national test in elementary was met with, "Our teachers are pretty busy. Let's give them a few more years."

Sorry, but I'm not satisfied with 95th percentile on the homegrown Michigan MEAP, unless someone can convince me that our students are only going to compete against Michigan kids throughout their lives.

==> Mike.


Here is the whole article in case the link doesn't work:

Michigan's tests leave children behind

Low passing scores create 'proficiency' illusion that sets up students for failure

Liam Julian

Susie Smith is a Michigan fourth-grader. Her parents get word that she has passed the state test, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). She's "proficient" in reading and math. They understandably take this as good news; their daughter must be "on grade level" and on track to do well in later grades.
What Susie's parents don't know is Michigan's state test is far from rigorous. The Wolverine State sets its "proficiency passing score"-- the score a student must attain to pass the test -- among the lowest in the land.

If Susie lived in, say, Massachusetts or South Carolina, she would have missed the proficiency cut-off by a mile. This is the proficiency illusion.

No Child allows illusion

At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act is the call for all American school children to become "proficient" in reading and mathematics by 2014. Yet No Child allows each state to craft its own definition of proficiency, and craft the tests that will measure it.

Until now, Michiganians had to believe their state's idea of proficiency was rigorous -- they had to trust that their state officials were going to hold all Michigan students to high standards. Unfortunately, that trust may have been misplaced.

Researchers compared the test scores of Michigan students on the state test, the MEAP, with their scores on another national assessment (Measures of Academic Progress). Then they compared MEAP's proficiency cutoff scores with those of 25 other states and determined that MEAP's is one of the lowest. In grade 4 math, only two states of the 26 evaluated have less rigorous requirements.

What's more, Michigan is setting its students up for failure. The score eighth-graders must reach to be considered "proficient" is far harder than the score third-graders need to achieve. That is, Michigan's tests are not well-calibrated across grades.

So Susie may be doing fine (at least on the state test) as a fourth-grader. If she makes normal progress during the next four years, though, she'll be "below proficient" as an eighth-grader.

No middle school problem?

Michigan has reported higher proficiency rates for its younger students. Generally, as students get older, their test scores decline -- leading many people to assume that the state has a middle-school problem. This new research suggests that, perhaps, the tests got a lot harder in the later grades.

We've known for years that there's a problem with many states' academic standards -- the aspirational statements of what students at various grade levels should know and be able to do in particular subjects. That problem turns out to be just the opening chapter of an alarming tale.

Because academic standards aren't the most important element. What drives behavior, determines results and shapes how performance is reported and understood is the passing level on state tests. Most people define educational success by how many kids pass or fail the state test.

Unfortunately, those tests vary so much from state to state that it's tough for parents to accurately gauge whether their children are learning and their public schools are doing their jobs.

The place to start fixing this mess by working toward the creation of national standards and tests that would allow Susie's parents to see how well she's doing relative to children her age in other states. That way, officials in Lansing wouldn't be able to construct such easy assessments for themselves, which artificially raise student scores and take the pressure off the state's schools.

Plus, education standards -- and the tests that measure them -- should be tethered to real-world expectations. What do we want our high school graduates to know; what do they need to know to perform in the economy?

Then everything else should be "backward mapped" so standards and tests in the different grades proceed cumulatively from kindergarten to graduation. It becomes possible to know whether a child is, or is not, on course to meet the 12th-grade expectations.

Satisfactory progress means staying on that trajectory from year to year. If Susie is behind, she has extra learning to do, and extra efforts should be made to see that she gets the help she needs.

As it stands, Michigan parents know only one thing for sure: Largely because of their state officials' shenanigans, they have little idea how well their students are actually doing in school.

Liam Julian is associate writer and editor at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education research group in Washington, D.C., and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

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Not every educator is opposed to NCLB

President Bush's landmark education law -- No Child Left Behind -- is worthwhile for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its requirement that schools be judged in part on common standards and measurable results

Many educators do not like being measured because any measuring system is going to be imperfect in some way or another. And they don't like someone else determining what will be measured, or what the measuring standard will be.

With that in mind, the following article from Jay Mathews caught my eye:

Washington Post: Superintendents Suggest Fixes For 'No Child' (10/01/07)

(Note: You may need to sign up for a free Washington Post account if you don't already have one. And if you don't have one, then get one because you're missing out on reading the insightful education articles from Jay Mathews!)

Setting a national standard for education is a scary proposition. But I'm not sure it's any scarier than leaving it to local school boards, who by and large simply rubber-stamp a watered-down curriculum with low standards.

It's sad that this discussion and debate even needs to take place. But keep in mind if school boards were getting the job done on their own, then nobody would give national standards a second thought.

Here is the article in case the link doesn't work:

Superintendents Suggest Fixes For 'No Child'
Some Support National Testing Standards

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 1, 2007; B01

The superintendents of the Washington area's two largest school systems say national standards are needed to measure achievement among public school students, a sharp contrast to other educators who are asking that the federal government have less involvement in the schools, not more.

The support for national tests from the superintendents in Fairfax and Montgomery counties, as well as the superintendent and School Board of Arlington County, is one of the most surprising messages being sent to Congress by area educators hoping to influence efforts to revise the five-year-old No Child Left Behind law.

Interviews with Washington area school leaders and a review of their statements show them in sympathy with nationwide public school support for rating schools by individual student progress, giving more time to bring non-English-speaking students up to annual benchmarks, providing more freedom for parents and teachers to decide how much students with learning disabilities need to improve, and spending more federal dollars to improve teaching quality and increase instruction time.

But by supporting national testing and learning standards, a position that Congress has rejected in previous years, some Washington educators are giving new life to a movement whose most outspoken supporters have been academics and pundits, not school administrators.

"I've never figured out why in the world we wouldn't have a national education standard," said Montgomery County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. "We have standards for toys and everything else."

Congress might vote on whether to revise No Child Left Behind this year. With criticism of the law ratcheting up, changes are likely.

Jack D. Dale, superintendent of Fairfax County schools, called the current system "incoherent, contradictory and inconsistent." Arlington's School Board, using an argument advanced by Superintendent Robert G. Smith, said No Child Left Behind "provides neither high consistent standards nor consistent measures for accountability."

Some local school leaders say they would like to expand the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federally financed sampling of student progress, to create a national learning standard. Arlington officials suggest that a revised federal law include a much larger sample of students so that the achievement tests would be given to all school systems and every school. This year's test was given to about 700,000 students.

Dale wants to turn the No Child Left Behind system upside down. Instead of states creating individual tests and the federal government devising the sanctions and supports for low-scoring schools, he would prefer that the federal government provide the tests. Every school could see where it stood on a national scale, and each state could decide what to do to encourage improvement in low-performing schools.

The views of Dale, Smith and Weast are at odds with many in Congress, who agreed to the unprecedented federal intrusion into schools only because each state retained the power to create testing standards and determine to a great extent how many of its schools would miss the new learning targets. Supporters of a more nationalized system say their views are influenced by the difficulty in figuring out what works with so many different state standards.

What is left unsaid is that in part because of unusually high household incomes and education levels in such school systems as Fairfax and Montgomery's, students in those counties will look very good, on average, on any national scale. And students in poor districts in all likelihood will be at a disadvantage.

Local educators are also asking that annual school assessments focus on how much each child has improved, instead of how much this year's students improved as a group compared with last year's.

"Current testing methods do not gauge or quantify growth over time," said Prince George's County Superintendent John E. Deasy. "In order to know if students are truly not being left behind, we must track the progress of the same students as they move from grade to grade and provide supports, if needed, to improve."

Emphasizing the improvement of each child, sometimes called the "gain score" or "growth model," is a part of a package of revisions suggested by the Alexandria-based National School Boards Association. "Growth is a more accurate measure of success, particularly for students who are traditionally at risk," an association report said. The association's proposal has been endorsed by school boards in Frederick, Howard, Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, as well as Manassas and Fredericksburg.

Several local educators said they support a revision of the law that would make it less likely that schools would miss federal targets just because a few students had missed a few questions on one test. Frederick County school board member Bonnie Borsa called the current setup an "all-or-none" system and said it "does not take into consideration the number of students who do not show proficiency or by what degree they missed the mark."

Several local school leaders said the law also puts too much emphasis on labeling schools that missed the mark as "needing improvement" and too little emphasis on helping them improve. "The data is being applied arbitrarily and used as a hammer and not as a way of improving achievement," said Dennis Kellison, superintendent of Winchester public schools in Virginia.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said: "Instead of relying solely on tests, we must meet the demands of our low-performing schools with intensive assistance and support. We must support especially the social, emotional and intellectual needs of students and find innovative ways to engage parents in the education of their children."

Many local educators said they were unhappy that students with learning disabilities often have to take exams given to students without disabilities and be judged by standards considered inappropriate for them by their parents and teachers. Dale has suggested to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a co-author of the No Child Left Behind law, that such students be judged by their progress in meeting the goals in their individualized education plans, drawn up by their parents and teachers, and not by federal benchmarks.

Some parents of disabled students have said, however, that without the federal benchmarks, school systems would have fewer incentives to give children the challenging lessons they need. Weast said he was also concerned about "watering down our expectations."

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Math's not important...

Several weeks ago, the Oakland Press published my opinion piece on K-12 test scores (Michigan Merit Exam and ACT), in which I cautioned readers to beware of schools “spinning" the test scores story to influence public opinion. (A blog entry and the article are here.)

William Boyle, Principal of the Bloomfield Hills Alternative High School countered with his own opinion, which didn't actually rebut my premise on test score "spin", but instead, challenged the notion that studying advanced math is important.

Oakland Press: Education is about more than just math (09/17/07)

Boyle states, “Using present test score results, Reno points out that many of our students will not be ready for ‘college math.’ This statement assumes that the need to know higher-level math is important for all.”

He goes on to say, “In fact, the need for math in the educational world is highly overstated… yet Reno suggests that 100 percent of our students need to know it.”

Unfortunately, I’ve heard similar arguments raised at Rochester's own school board table. It's as if some honestly believe that children interested in art or music don’t need much more than “checkbook math”. Or that students who aren’t going to be doctors really don’t need biology.

If 100% of our students don't need math and science, what percentage do?

What fraction of U.S. students should be guided to pursue less rigorous coursework because they view academic subjects as “drudgery”?

And if a student does view academic subjects as “drudgery", is this saying something about the student or the teaching?

Boyle quotes Dennis Redovich, of the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin and the United States, “Less than 5 percent of jobs in the United States require higher math and science preparation.”

When did teaching bare minimums become our goal?

And Redovich is a scary source. The forward to his book, "The Big Con in Education", points out, "Most jobs the economy is creating are low-skill, service sector jobs. Wal-Mart trumps Microsoft." As if that's supposed to lead to a career strategy on which to base a student's education.

Once upon a time there were those who argued that because children would grow up to be farmers or factory workers, there wasn't much reason to teach them to read.

The world has since evolved.

The merits of learning math should be obvious. Math is sometimes referred to as the language of science. Our world advances in countless ways due to the work of those who apply higher order math to scientific and technological innovation.

But beyond the thousands of ordinary and extraordinary jobs which require mathematical knowledge, the study of mathematics is a universally recognized for its fundamental value in developing critical thinking skills.

And despite what Boyle says, math does not conflict with creativity.

Stephen Campbell, Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine says this about studying math:

"In its finest sense, mathematics is a well-established and proven key to unlocking the infinite potential of the human mind to create new conceptual structures and to discover existing ones. The study of mathematics has long been recognized ...as the most appropriate way out of the cave of human ignorance."

We should teach advanced math because of its relevance and its potential across all disciplines.

And we should teach advanced math because we can. Children of every race, ethnicity, religion, and income level can learn it with hard work, disipline, and good teaching.

I was surprised at the statement, "Because of the increased obstacles, more of our students will choose to opt out of the educational system." The new state graduation requirements specifically provide “opt out” provisions so that students -- with parent and educator agreement -- can opt out of the graduation requirements rather than opt out of school. This was specifically designed for those Boyle describes as being “not hardwired for math”.

I agree it’s unlikely that we’ll get 100% of our students through these tough courses, and we do need a safety net. But that “opt out” bar should be set pretty high, and 100% should always be our goal.

Yes, it’s tough for children – really tough for some – to get through advanced academic subjects. But as parents and teachers, we have an obligation to encourage students not to give up just because something is hard.

Boyle’s article helps to illustrate that this will be a challenge for educators as well.

Parents and policymakers need to encourage them too, so that they don’t give up on our children – just because it’s hard.

==> Mike.

P.S. The other point made by Mr. Boyle -- that setting high standards is some sort of elitist plot with a "hidden agenda" -- is absurd.

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We ALL pay to play

Here’s an interesting decision.

Oakland Press: No more paying to play sports in Oxford (09/14/07)

Oxford’s projecting a revenue windfall due to the fact that they had an increased enrollment of 90 students. This presumably generated an extra $600,000 or more in extra, unexpected revenue.

The board decided that the best choice of where to place some of that money was in athletics.

That’s certainly their prerogative and it’s not without precedent. Earlier this year the school board for Van Dyke Public Schools chose to layoff teachers rather than chop funding for athletics. (I wrote about that here last April.)

My initial thought was that this district must’ve had some pretty impressive results if the board is choosing to invest it’s additional dollars in athletics instead of academics.

So, I took a look at Oxford’s MME high school test results, found here on the Michigan Department of Education’s website. The percentage of students that passed math, science, and English was in the 60% - 63% range.

This means that of their 300+ high school students:

122 students (39.2%) did not pass Math.
115 students (37.3%) did not pass Science.
115 students (37.7%) did not pass English.

The ACT scores provide additional measurement data (found here). Comparing ACT test results to the ACT College Readiness Benchmark is one more way to evaluate the effectiveness of a school. From the ACT website:

“A benchmark score is the minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college courses, which include English Composition, Algebra, Social Science and Biology. These scores were empirically derived based on the actual performance of students in college.”

Here are Oxford’s average scores, and how they compare to these benchmarks:

English Benchmark: 18
Oxford’s Average: 19.7

Reading Benchmark: 21
Oxford’s Average: 20

Math Benchmark: 22
Oxford’s Average: 19.8

Science Benchmark: 24
Oxford’s Average: 20.3

So, in three out of four subjects, Oxford’s average student is not prepared to do college level work.

In the article, Superintendent William Skilling points out this investment in athletics will improve education. He also says, “we’re not going to have pay for play this year and in the future. We’re not bringing it back. We’re not going to do it. It hurts kids.”

Looking at this from a “hurting kids” perspective, I’m curious if there is any minimum test score level that would prompt them to reinstate pay for play in order to direct more resources to academics.

I’m not trying to single out Oxford. Out of all Michigan high schools, only 66 had their average scores exceed 22, indicating that their students were prepared for college level math. And of those, half are private schools.

And I do believe pay for play should be waived for some children. Those that qualify for free and reduced lunch should also be able to play sports for free.

And I’m not opposed to athletics; I know it helps children learn about teamwork and commitment. It also provide them with activities, which can help to keep them from straying into trouble.

My point is that Michigan’s educational leadership seems too preoccupied with non-academic high school experiences, such as athletics and electives. There is nothing wrong with supporting athletics and electives, but it should not come at the expense of academics, especially when the data clearly shows poor results.

There’s no doubt that the money being used to eliminate pay-to-play could’ve been used for curriculum development or new intervention strategies designed to help struggling students. When people read articles like the one I've referenced here, they need to understand the board is making choices.

I posted this entry because it serves as a great example of the type of well intentioned but misguided choices that are being made by school boards around the state. I believe this type of approach is one of the leading factors in the decline of Michigan’s K-12 education system.

Here is the full article in case the link doesn’t work.




No more paying to play sports in Oxford

By KEITH DUNLAP Of The Oakland Press

At a time when most school districts around the state are taking away, Oxford Area Community Schools has decided to give money back to its athletic participants and their families.

At a meeting Tuesday, the Oxford Board of Education eliminated the district’s pay-toplay requirement by a unanimous vote of 7-0, allowing middle school and high school students to play sports for free.

The district hopes to send out refund checks to any student or family who paid to play a sport this year within the next few weeks.

High school athletes had to pay $150 per year to play a sport, while middle school athletes had to pay $90.

“I think it has great impact on our kids and our families,” Oxford Athletic Director Pat Ball said. “I’m thrilled for our kids and families for what the board has done. I regretted when we had to start it four or five years ago, and I’m glad we can eliminate it.”

The move was spearheaded by Oxford Area Community Schools Superintendent William Skilling, who was eyeing eliminating pay-to-play when he took over as superintendent July 1.

Skilling said the district planned to eliminate pay-toplay next year, but decided to do it this year when there was an enrollment increase of 90 students in the district, something that wasn’t projected in the district’s 2007-08 budget.

Skilling also said the move wasn’t temporary. There won’t be any pay-to-play requirements for athletes next year and beyond.

“With the increased enrollment and all that brought, we just said, ‘Let’s give the money back,’ ” Skilling said. “That’s a big decision. It’s a statement that we’re not going to have pay for play this year and in the future. We’re not bringing it back. We’re not going to do it. It hurts kids.”

Previously the superintendent for Webberville schools, Skilling said eliminating pay-to-play led to a dramatic increase in athletic participation in that district, and hopes it will not only benefit the athletic programs in Oxford, but the district as a whole.

“By improving on what we have, the result is that not only will you have better education, but more students entering your district because you’re doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing,” Skilling said.

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Setting the bar low... and tripping over it!

One of the problems I've encountered during my indoctronation into education has been the low expectations set by local education leaders. So many make excuses about why a student cannot achieve. They use economic or racial demographics as an excuse. They suggest that not all kids are "college bound". They don't feel those students pursing an artistic career need to study academic subjects.

They set the bar so low that our students are tripping over it!

The following article addresses those expectations, as well as the need to better align high school and college curriculums.

eSchool News: Report: Schools aren't preparing kids for college (09/13/07)

Here is a link to that Alliance for Excellent Education report: AEE's Issue Brief: "High School Teaching for the Twenty-First Century: Preparing Students for College"

This article truly addresses the belief we must all accept in order to insure that we leave no child behind:

"To prepare students for success in college, panelists said, teachers must believe that all--and not just a few--students can succeed; make honors courses available as electives for all students; create rigorous work assignments using collaboration and problem-solving; teach reading comprehension and writing skills; and, most of all, motivate students to achieve."

Here is the full article in case the link doesn't work:


Report: Schools aren't preparing kids for college
Better alignment is needed between high school and college standards, panelists say

By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
September 13, 2007

Students are taught to believe that earning a high school diploma means they are prepared to enter college, and many policy makers and school leaders still believe that multiple-choice assessments are adequate measures of students' skills. But at a panel discussion convened by the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) on Sept. 12, researchers and education professionals said this is too often not the case.

AEE held the event to discuss an issue brief it published on the same day. Sponsored by the MetLife Foundation, the report claims that a fundamental disconnect exists between the way high school teachers prepare their students for the future and how students truly achieve success and meet the demands of college.

"We consider this a timely report, as well as a relevant one, since the House Committee for Education and Labor is currently looking at No Child Left Behind," said Bob Wise, AEE president and former governor of West Virginia. Among other issues, House legislators are considering measures that would call for revised assessments for college readiness and different teaching methods for encouraging 21st-century learning in their reauthorization of NCLB. (See "Lawmakers step up NCLB renewal process".)

The issue brief is also important because "recent studies have shown that the skills needed to succeed in college are similar to the skills needed for good-paying jobs," said Cyndie Schmeiser, president of the education division at ACT Inc., which administers the ACT college entrance exam.

Jane West, moderator of the panel discussion and vice president of government and external relations for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, agreed with Schmeiser. "Just look at the Ford Motor Company, which considered moving states because they said they wanted more qualified, college-educated workers," West said.

The issue brief, a collection of data from various news sources and studies conducted by organizations such as ACT, states that only 34 percent of students graduate from high school ready for college--and that number is smaller for minorities. Overall, it says, only 18 percent of high school freshmen graduate in four years, go on to college, and earn an associate's or bachelor's degree.

Also, one-third of those who make it to college must take remedial courses, costing the nation more than $1.4 billion every year at community colleges alone, according to the report.

The problem, panelists said, is that high school standards, assessments, and course requirements are not aligned with those of colleges. In a recent ACT poll, 65 percent of college professors said they do not believe high school standards prepare students for college. Many professors believe teachers are covering too many subjects too broadly, when only a few core subjects should be taught and basic skills should be well developed in all students.

In terms of assessments, multiple-choice tests rarely ask students to explain their reasoning or apply knowledge to new situations. "High schools are increasingly boxed in by assessments," said Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education at Stanford University's School of Education. "There's just a huge mess of expectations."

To help solve these problems, AEE and ACT have outlined definitions for college readiness. AEE defines it as "the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in entry-level college coursework without remediation." ACT's definition consists of four parts: habits of mind, key content knowledge, academic behaviors, and contextual skills.

"Habits of mind" refers to the skills that professors consistently identify as critical-thinking skills, such as analysis, interpretation, problem solving, and reasoning skills. Key content knowledge is the essential knowledge of each discipline that prepares students for advanced study, or study of the "big ideas" in each content area.

Academic behaviors include skills such as reading comprehension, time management, note-taking, and self-awareness of how one is thinking and learning. Contextual skills are skills needed to get into college, such as understanding the admissions process, placement testing, financial aid, and the expectations of college life.

To prepare students for success in college, panelists said, teachers must believe that all--and not just a few--students can succeed; make honors courses available as electives for all students; create rigorous work assignments using collaboration and problem-solving; teach reading comprehension and writing skills; and, most of all, motivate students to achieve.

"Currently, there's no universal standard for all students. All students should be able to accomplish and succeed," said Doug Wood, executive director of the National Academy for Excellent Teaching at the Teachers College of Columbia University.

Kim McClung, an English teacher at Kent-Meridian High School in Washington state, said most teachers teach to the "lowest common denominator, but they need to expect the best from every single student."

"Don't use a common-language version of a Shakespeare play because you think your students can't learn it. Take the time; teach them how to read it," McClung said.

But the panelists acknowledged that teachers must receive support to make this happen.

For example, teachers must be given more time to collaborate with colleagues and talk with individual students. They need time to "give feedback and ask for work revisions," Darling-Hammond explained.

Teachers also must receive ongoing professional development to know their subject at a college level and to update their knowledge regularly, in order to incorporate critical-thinking skills into the classroom. For instance, a chemistry teacher not only must know the principles of chemistry, but also should encourage reading and writing skills for comprehending text, as well as preparing a lab report and analyzing results.

"If you're more efficacious, you're more likely to stay in your profession," said Darling-Hammond.

Incentives and induction are also important. Schools need incentives to attract and retain good teachers, and new teachers should have a mentor, a first-year residency, or should partner with another teacher as they adapt to the classroom environment and learn their craft.

"Induction is so important," McClung said. "In California, there are lots of first-year residencies, and this has really helped put theory into practice."

Finally, teachers need helpful, longitudinal data and the skills to interpret this information as a tool to drive individual student instruction.

Panelists ended the discussion by listing two or three policies they'd like to see changed or enacted.

• Darling-Hammond: Incentives for creating new, more productive assessments; a redesign of high schools so they are better able to support teachers; and programs that prepare teachers for college alignment.

• Wood: More college-ready assessments, a comprehensive growth model that measures student growth over time, and more robust state data systems.

• Schmeiser: Alignment among high schools, postsecondary education, and the workforce; and for states to have a uniform policy for what defines and constitutes a high school diploma.

• McClung: Support programs for at-risk students and those with no home support, and open communication between universities and high schools.

"We know this information is nothing new," said Jeremy Ayers, policy and advocacy associate for AEE, "but we're trying to raise awareness on a policy level."

Woods agreed with Ayers, saying: "The most effective schools, boards, and councils need the support of their governor and other policy makers."

"With a sustained focus on college readiness, we hope to inform, assess, and improve high school teaching for the 21st-century," said Ayers. "We're trying to fundamentally change the culture and beliefs of high schools across the country."

Links:

AEE's Issue Brief: "High School Teaching for the Twenty-First Century: Preparing Students for College"

ACT College Readiness Report

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Education Action Group

A group on the west side of Michigan is hoping to help board members advocate for kids by helping to defend boards against union attacks.

The Grand Rapids Press: MEA watchdog keeps eye on school funding (09/10/07)

You can find out more about the Education Advocacy Group at www.educationactiongroup.org

In case the link doesn't work, here is the full story:


MEA watchdog keeps eye on school funding

Monday, September 10, 2007
By Beth Loechler
The Grand Rapids Press

Sitting on a school board can be lonely. Just ask David Allen.

When he cast the tie-breaking vote to privatize busing in Grand Rapids Public Schools, union members shouted and picketed to protect their jobs. Earlier this year, Allen was threatened with a recall.

"I know it's been tough on families, but the facts are the facts," Allen said. Grand Rapids and other districts struggling to balance their budgets have no choice but to continue cutting costs, he said.

Other school boards, including Reeths-Puffer, have cast similar job-cutting votes and suffered similar consequences.

Through it all, Kyle Olson has been watching.

As budget shortfalls continue to plague school districts throughout the state, Olson wants to make sure every dollar possible is going toward educating kids. So he created the nonprofit Education Action Group in June and signed on as its solo employee.

Olson sees his job as an MEA watchdog and the guy who will rally communities to support school boards when they are casting those tough votes on union contracts and privatization. He challenged those who unsuccessfully tried to recall Allen and questioned their motives.

The "silent majority" supports a school board that hires a private company for services outside the classroom, Olson said, because the board is saving money.

"They want the board to make good decisions so as many dollars as possible go toward educating children," he said.

But no one wants to back school boards for taking a stand, he said, because that means going against the powerful Michigan Education Association.

"This has been a very one-sided debate," said the 29-year-old Muskegon resident, ex-lobbyist and self-proclaimed public school advocate.

The MEA had no comment regarding Olson's Education Action Group.

"We just don't know anything about them," spokeswoman Karen Schulz said.

In addition to privatizing some services, Olson believes school districts should be free to drop the pricey health insurance offered by the MEA affiliate called MESSA, or Michigan Education Special Services Association.

This idea is gaining traction elsewhere, too. The state Senate last week narrowly approved a bill that for the first time would force MESSA to disclose insurance claims data, which would allow districts to compare policies and seek competitive bids

"Competition will help drive down costs," Olson said.

Democrats, who control the House, aren't likely to favor the legislation, however.

Olson is no stranger to politics. He handled government affairs for the Michigan Association of Realtors, managed Republican Gerald VanWoerkem's campaign for state Senate in 2002 and ran, unsuccessfully, for the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners last year.

Education Action Group is a 501(c)4 organization, which means it's a politically focused nonprofit, like MoveOn.org and the National Rifle Association.

Contributions are not tax-deductible. He will not say who has donated, but annual reports he will be required to file with the IRS will disclose the number and amounts of donations.

He has put together a board of directors, which he also is shielding -- with the exception of Chairwoman Jane Missimer, 69, of Muskegon.

She has a "fervent interest in advocacy" and two children who attended public schools, she said. One of them was in special education.

"The insurance issue caught my attention," said Missimer, who worked as an ombudsman. "Why are we protecting a union-based program? Why aren't we putting that money into special education or other programs?"

Olson wants to help boards such as Reeths-Puffer's, which felt persecuted after voting to hire a private company to clean its schools. A pamphlet distributed in Muskegon County encouraged residents to boycott Meijer, Walgreens, Verizon and other businesses that employed school board members.

He's the guy who will point out which school board members have received MEA campaign contributions (www.educationactiongroup.org) and that MEA Executive Director Lu Battaglieri's salary last year was $334,174.

"This is not about attacking teachers," he said. "But school districts have X amount of dollars. They have to make sure that money goes as far as it can."

Send e-mail to the author: bloechler@grpress.com

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Spinning the ACT results

The "upbeat" message from our state's education establishment on the Michigan Merit Exam results - the MME - is more disheartening than the results themselves.

This new test measures student learning and was given to ALL Michigan 11th graders for the first time in the Spring of 2007.

The following opinion piece shares my views on the "spin" factor applied to
statewide test results:

Oakland Press: Schools will put spin on ACT results (9/2/07)

Let’s start with the facts. Here are the percentage of students that passed the MME by subject:

English 51.0%
Math 46.5%
Reading 59.7%
Science 55.9%
Writing 40.1%
Social Studies 83.3%

You’d think that parents would be ready to overthrow the state AND local leadership with results like this. But, most parents probably don’t know what these scores really mean. It’s no wonder given the “spin” offered by education officials.

[Note: You can find your schools MME summary results here. An Excel datafile with all results (including your school, whether public or non-public) is also available for MME Results and ACT Results]

Let's be clear: The responsibility for these disappointing scores does not rest entirely with educators. Parents need to step up to their own responsibilities, intervening when necessary to motivate and direct their own children.

But rather than allowing these disappointing scores to serve as a badly needed wake-up call, schools chose to send a unified "All's well" message throughout Michigan.

The responsible thing to do is to admit that we've got a problem, but do so in a way that doesn't undermine the public's confidence in their schools. If anyone reading this comes across an example of such leadership, please send it my way!

I'm not sure which is more disturbing: educators who brag publicly about poor results, or a news media that abandons its role of government watchdog,to become the education establishment's lapdog - dutifully reporting press releases as news, without fact-checking or civic-minded analysis.

Here are a few examples:

From the Tri-County Times

During Linden's Board of Education meeting last Wednesday, Superintendent Elizabeth Leonard said the MME test results for Linden was "wonderful news." She told board members that for the past five years, Linden's totals have always been above the state average and have always been in the top five or six in the county.

"That's a great tribute to the community," she said.

Interim Linden High School Principal Russ Ciesielski said his students did "extremely well compared to the state averages."

The facts: 48 percent of Linden’s students failed English, and 39.8 percent failed math.

This concept of comparing to statewide averages is the common spin tactic, as if being above the Michigan average is some significant accomplishment. Keep in mind that only 40,000 students – out of 114,000 – actually passed all of the MME components. That is roughly 35 percent, or a little over 1 in 3 students.

From the Livonia Eccentric:

LPS director of academic services Sheila Alles said she is pleased that LPS topped state averages.

The facts: 55.3 percent of Livonia students passed math; 653 out of 1460 did not pass.

The Detroit News ran a piece entitled, "Merit test scores fall short" (found here), which is about the only objective and relatively comprehensive coverage I've seen on the subject.

This noteworthy quote appropriately calls for educator and parent involvement: "I am very, very disappointed in the test results," said Michael Horn, principal of Southfield High School, where students struggled in math and writing. "All of us are at fault. We must acknowledge that. We failed our kids."

Yet that article also resorted to statewide comparisons, "In Metro Detroit, Livingston County schools posted the best results on average, leading the four counties and exceeding the state averages in math, reading, science and social studies."

Here are the facts on Math:

- Students Passing Math in Howell: 50.8
- Students Passing Math in Pickney: 60.2%
- Students Passing Math in Brighton: 71.2%
- Students Passing Math in Fowlerville: 42.7%
- Students Passing Math in Heartland: 60.1%

The top district in county had less than 1 out of 4 kids pass math. In total, 897 of the county’s children (out of 2167) failed math, which equals a failure rate of 41.4 percent.

Countless stories like these ran in newspapers throughout Michigan last week, reporting mediocre results as "above average", and reassuring the casual reader that "all is well", when it clearly is not.

The spinning comes from all levels: State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus said, "these results were expected because the state's new mandatory curriculum, geared toward boosting standards, hadn't yet been implemented when the test was administered."

"It sounds terrible, but I don't think it's as bad as people think," she said. As the new content is added to classes, results will improve, she said. "This is a transitional period."

Transition from what? Weren't high schools expected to prepare kids for college before last year? I think they were expected to do that 25 years ago when I was in high school!

Relatively speaking, some of the districts should take pride in the fact that they were able to guide their students to superior scores. But these underwhelming scores should not be a cause for celebration, even among the "top districts".

Let's acknowledge that some districts have a good head start (compared to others) in their efforts in preparing their students for college, but let's also recognize that we've got a long journey ahead of us!

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Comparing Benefit Spending among States

An article I wrote was published a few days ago:

Detroit News: Michigan becomes leader in costly school benefits (08/30/07)

The idea for the article occured earlier this summer while I was having lunch with a well-respected columnist. We were discussing education funding, and how it is helping to drive the tax hikes proposed by Democrats and Governor Granholm.

I believe these tax increase are being proposed because school boards have let their spending -- particluarly on benefits -- rise in an uncontrolled way. This is compounded by a similiar uncontrolled rise in education retirement spending at the state level.

The reporter asked, "How does Michigan benefit spending compare with what they spend in other states?"

I couldn't rattle-off the numbers, so yet another research project was born!

Of course, trying to find the numbers is next to impossible. States are inconsistent in the way they report data. Some share data on their state websites, while others don't.

I finally found two places that had data for all of the states, although trying to decode and decipher this information is another Herculean task, given the confusing labels assigned to data, and poor descriptions of what the data represents.

The NCES Common Core of Data provides a utility (found here) that enables users to construct a data table. The most recent data they have on statewide benefit spending comes from the 2003-04 school year.

The US Census bureau gathers data on all of the taxes levied in a state -- both local and statewide -- and reports it here.

I combined the data, and here are some the results:

* Michigan dedicates 37.1% of it's tax spending on education. Nationally, the average is 32.3%.

* Michigan ranks 9th in the nation on benefit spending, dedicating $2179 per pupil compared to a nation average of $1559 per pupil.

* Michigan dedicates 20.3% of it's education spending to benefits, while the national average is 15.9%.

* A school's funding is usually a mix of both local and state taxes. When looking at all of these taxes, Michigan schools spend 7.53% of them on benefits. Nationally, the average is 5.1%.

The complete data tables are found in a PDF file found here.

In case the link to the Detroit News doesn't work, the article as originally written is pasted below:

-----------------------

It's old news that taxpayer-funded Michigan educator benefits are excessive when compared to most private sector benefits. But further exploration now shows they're also excessive when compared to public educator benefits around the nation.

This merits continued attention because benefit levels are a leading cause of the budgetary crisis facing schools. Absent meaningful reform, school boards will drag the state down with them, or will instead force a tax increase.

The health benefits provided to Michigan educators cost on average 25 percent more than benefits provided to private-sector employees, according to an annual survey done by McGraw Wentworth - a Michigan benefit-consulting group. And retirement benefits, as chronicled recently by reporter Ron French in the Detroit News, are extremely generous.

Yet any attempt to explore benefit reform is met with protests that it'll drive Michigan teachers to other states.

Well, if 2003-04 spending data is any indication, it's unclear where Michigan teachers will go because our state funds benefits at levels far beyond most other states.

The U.S. Department of Education's NCES website (National Center for Education Statistics) consolidates benefit spending by state. The U.S. Census bureau compiles total state and local taxes. Linking the data paints an interesting picture of a state's financial commitment to education, and shows the spending priorities of education officials.

On average, states allocate 15.9 percent of their education spending to benefits. In Michigan, we spend 20.3 percent, ranking fifth in the nation.

Benefits spending in relation to total taxes is even more alarming.

For every $100 dollars Michigan collects in state and local taxes, $7.53 is used to pay for benefits. Nationally, it's $5.13 out of every $100. That difference represents over one billion dollars annually in above-average benefit spending in Michigan.

These statistics might be less troubling if Michigan was a low tax state, but it's not.

And the issue might be less significant if the state didn't spend heavily on education, but it does.

Despite what school politicians want you to believe, legislators support education. Michigan would rank sixth nationally if looking at the percentage of total state and local taxes dedicated to education. Nationally, the average is 32.3 percent, and in Michigan it's 37.1 percent.

Michigan legislators have made education a funding priority, but school boards have chosen to use those tax dollars to make benefits a spending priority.

Former State Superintendent Tom Watkins foresaw this in his 2004 report called "Michigan School Funding in the 21st Century." Had we started addressing the issue then, we might be reaping the savings now, instead of using political gimmicks and accounting tricks to balance the state's budget.

It's clear reform is overdue.

Legislators should change the educator retirement plan from a defined benefit to a 401(k) style defined contribution program. It's the predominant type of private sector plan, and is what's offered to other state employees.

And school boards - either voluntarily or through state oversight - should adopt reasonable changes in co-pays, co-insurance, and annual deductibles that'll help control costs without causing financial hardship on employees.

Perhaps creating a "Prevailing Benefit" law would be a good start. Schools would be required to keep employee benefits in line with those offered to the private sector taxpayers in the community.

These steps are needed to keep public education solvent and affordable. And they're also necessary if we hope to invest in education.

Currently, increased funding goes entirely to soaring benefit costs. Instead, it should be used to advance data-driven curriculum development, improve learning intervention programs, and support the newly enacted, globally relevant graduation requirements.

It's time for taxpayers to stop tolerating this nonsense, and start holding school boards accountable.

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MEA caught in hypocritical trap

Amusing little tidbit from the Detroit News today:

Detroit News: Editorial Quick Hits: Ours (09/01/07)

"What's good for the Michigan Education Association is apparently not good for taxpayers. The state's largest teachers union is asking its own staff to take cuts in retirement benefits and retiree health care. The union representing MEA staff, the United Staff Organization, is threatening to strike. The demands the MEA is making of its own union workers aren't much different than those being made by the school districts with which the MEA has contracts. And yet the union is fighting those concessions. The MEA might have a better case with its own workers if it were more reasonable with the taxpayers."

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