Great op-ed from the NY Times on how basic (and fairly inexpensive) things can make the difference for low-income kids of all ages. When people ask me, "What would you do?" these are the kinds of things shown to work that I support.
- While they were graduate students at Harvard, two young professors designed and tested a program
to help students stick to their college plans. Benjamin L. Castleman,
now at the University of Virginia, and Lindsay C. Page, at the
University of Pittsburgh, set up a system of automatic, personalized
text messages that reminded high school students about their college
deadlines. The texts included links to required forms and live
counselors.
-The same researchers also tested a texting program
to keep students from dropping out of college. The problem is important
because the graduation rate of low-income college students is dismally
low; two-thirds leave without a degree. Community college students
received texts reminding them to complete their re-enrollment forms,
particularly aid applications.
- Two researchers at Stanford University, Eric P. Bettinger and Rachel Baker, analyzed an innovative counseling program in which a professional academic coach calls at-risk students to talk about time management and study skills.
- Susanna Loeb and Benjamin N. York, both also at Stanford, developed a literacy program
for preschool children in San Francisco. They sent parents texts
describing simple activities that develop literacy skills, such as
pointing out words that rhyme or start with the same sound. The parents
receiving the texts spent more time with their children on these
activities and their children were more likely to know the alphabet and
the sounds of letters. It cost just a few dollars per family.
Why aren’t schools, districts and states rushing to set up these
measures? Maybe because the programs have no natural constituency. They
are not labor- or capital-intensive, so they don’t create lots of jobs
or lucrative contracts. They don’t create a big, expensive initiative
that a politician can point to in a stump speech. They just do their
job, effectively and cheaply.
What's on your mind?
12 comments:
The Seattle Times had a really nasty article yesterday (dead tree, sorry, don't have a link) on teacher quality. They basically said that a national review showed that teachers in general were crap at teaching kids, but generally pretty good at emotional supports.
It appeared from the article that they were pretty much exclusively talking about preschool teachers, and not K-12, although the rating organization does have some additional work on K-12. The article was very carefully written to imply that these ratings went all the way through PreK-12 while using only examples from preschool. A casual reader would probably miss that it didn't apply to the entire school system.
I read the same article as Eric B. It should be noted that the article talked about CLASS evaluation and SPS piloted this evaluation system within their prek classrooms. The same evaluation process will be used for the city's prek program.
Why not do a post about PSESD?
Most people don't know about this additional $50 million dollars per year extra layer of administration.
PSESD What?
What a load of horse doo doo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/23/oregon-sexual-assault-lawsuit_n_6732782.html
Has anyone heard anything about when the results of the 2014-2015 round of Highly Capable/Advanced Placement testing results will be released? Our child was tested in December and we still don't have an eligibility result. We'd like to be able to talk about the future before it passes us by...
A few thoughts on Congressional inquiry into No Child Left Behind.
A great read:
Blinders on the education policy horse
By Richard Phelps
@Waiting-in-Vain - It seems like it's now routine to get the results after Open Enrollment ends. We went through it last year and I think we didn't get the official results until after we'd gotten the letter from enrollment with the changes processed. Since we were staying at the same school, just enrolling in Spectrum, it didn't really end up impacting my kid much at all. Though if you're trying to decide between Lincoln or a Spectrum school, it's a tough process. You should check out discussapp.blogspot.com if you haven't already. There are a lot of people in your situation talking about it over there.
This may be of interest to some readers of this blog:
https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/nathan-hale-high-school-says-no-to-the-common-core-standards-sbac-test/
David Edelman
Nathan Hale has had a couple of meetings discussing all standardized tests. There have also been discussions on the origins of the SAT and its eugenics background. I believe that a lot of parents will be opting out their 11th graders from the tests in April.
HP
NY Times:
Are Learning Styles a Symptom of Education's Ills
Some of the reader comments are terrific.
Not a K-12 issue, but strange, sad, and sickening things going on at U.S Department of Education regarding student loans and Corinthian Colleges.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/corinthian-15-student-loans_n_6739016.html
Is it time to raise the 1% property tax cap? Food for thought.
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/guest-lift-the-1-percent-cap-on-property-tax/#comments
-Downtown Dad
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