The Chicago Tribune reports that the Windy City's superintendent is asking the board of education there to sign off on the creation of a high school for gay, lesbian and transgendered teens. The article says the Pride Campus "would incorporate lessons about sexual identity in literature and history classes and offer counseling."

The school proposal comes as a new study confirms the rampant harassment of gay students in the nation's middle and high schools. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network says nearly nine in 10 of the 6,209 students it surveyed say they've been harassed in the past year. This leads to truancy, as gay students don't feel safe coming to school. And understandably, fears are heightened in the wake of the Larry King tragedy this year in California.

But is creating a separate school the answer? Or, as some gay-rights activists suggest in the article, should existing schools be working harder to foster acceptance? After all, children make fun of each other all the time for all kinds of reasons: because of the color of their skin or the religion they practice, because their families are poor, because they have a disability. 

The Pride school would not be allowed to ask prospective students their sexual orientation (presumably, they would self-select). But it's hard to imagine the creation of a school designed to prevent any other minority group from being teased.

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Tuesday is a day that administrators from around the nation have been waiting for: the announcement of this year's Broad Prize, urban education's version of the Oscars or the Pulitzers or even the Nobel. The prize goes to the urban district with the greatest growth and overall student achievement. The winner gets $1 million for college scholarships for its high school seniors; the four finalists each get $250,000. New York City won last year.

This year, the contest is particularly interesting because one of the contenders -- Miami-Dade County Public Schools -- just ousted its superintendent, former NYC Chancellor Rudy Crew. Crew had been named the 2008 superintendent of the year by the American Association of School Administrators. From what I've read, it sounds like he was a victim of school board politics. And the drama only begins there: The Miami board named as Crew's successor an assistant superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, who is alleged to have had an affair with the Miami Herald reporter who was covering the schools there last year. She had moved onto The Boston Globe when the allegations surfaced and resigned from her position last month.

The other finalists for the Broad Prize are the Aldine Independent School District in Texas, Broward County Public Schools in Florida, the Brownsville Independent School District in Texas and the Long Beach Unified School District in California.

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In today's paper, I wrote about another chapter in the ongoing conflict of Baltimore County schools vs. teachers (and other system employees).  While the hundreds who protested at the Board of Education were pleased that members decided not to switch to a single provider for 403(b) plans, the call for a 2 percent pay raise (recommended by a mediation panel) is still at issue.

The pay raise issue here popped into my head this morning when I stumbled across this item about a very well-paying teaching job in New York City. Teachers, what do you think?  Would you be up for a gig that paid $125,000 a year?  This charter school may be for you.

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We've talked before on this blog about the reasons for the success of the 60-plus schools in the Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, which runs Baltimore's highest-performing middle school. Now, the research group SRI International is releasing a three-year study of KIPP schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, analyzing why their students outperform their peers in other public schools. The study, commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, cites four factors: 1) a culture of high expectations; 2) more time in school and more support for struggling students; 3) a focus on tracking student progress and careful instructional planning; 4) a philosophy of continuous improvement, where school leaders and teachers often revise their strategies.

We've seen all these things before at KIPP Ujima Village in Baltimore. To me, the more interesting question that the study poses is not what causes KIPP to be successful, but whether its success can be replicated on a large scale. And its answer to that is maybe not: It's a lot harder when the students and parents aren't choosing to be at the charter school, making a commitment to do the work. It's a lot harder when teachers aren't choosing to work many extra hours and be available for their students around the clock.

It's not that KIPP students are coming in more able, as is often alleged. In fact, the report found that the Bay Area KIPP schools tend to attract lower-performing students than the traditional public schools in their areas. Perhaps these students and their parents feel desperate that the traditional public schools aren't working for them. In any case, they're choosing to be at KIPP.

The report concludes that KIPP's experiences "don't directly map onto those of other schools and districts," but they demonstrate a lesson relevant to everyone: "High expectations and hard work pay off. There are no shortcuts."

The study's findings are similar to those of another report released in by Johns Hopkins researchers about KIPP Ujima Village last year. An article we wrote about the report at the time said KIPP was transforming the lives of its students, but "translating the methods and successes of KIPP to other middle schools in the city probably would be challenging and costly."

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In this article published yesterday, USA Today surveyed 74 business CEOs to ask whether they think it's a good idea to pay students for doing well in school. More than half said yes. Thirty-three of 66 said they pay or have paid their own kids for grades.

The article contrasted that survey's findings with a Union Pacific Foundation survey of 450 high school principals, only 15 percent of whom supported paying for grades. The 15 percent were typically "in poor communities where almost any experiment is worth a try," the article says.

Baltimore, of course, is one of the cities that's trying pay for performance among students -- those struggling to pass the High School Assessments. The article also mentions a project by the foundations of ExxonMobil, Bill Gates and Michael Dell to pay students at 67 high schools in seven states between $100 and $200 for high scores on A.P. exams.

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As Liz reports today, a new study is out by the Center on Education Policy about the schools that have restructured under No Child Left Behind. Maryland, with its recent emphasis on replacing the staff at schools required by law to restructure, is now taking among the most aggressive steps in the nation. But it's too soon to know whether the strategy is working.

Until 2006, most Maryland schools that have failed to meet targets on standardized tests for several consecutive years chose the restructuring option of hiring a "turnaround specialist," usually to work with the principal. And usually, that move didn't do much good, so the option was discontinued.

The CEP report questions the logistical challenges associated with creating school restructuring plans as more schools need them. It says that Maryland's resources are being "stretched thinly." In districts such as Baltimore and Prince George's County with lots of schools in restructuring, there's concern that plans are not being individualized for each school and staff replacement is the automatic option. Other choices include reopening as a charter school and entering into a contract with a private school management company. But as the report points out, "becoming a charter school takes about 18 months, which does not fit with the required federal restructuring timetline."

In Baltimore, the school improvement teams at all the restructuring schools chose the option of staff replacement. (These teams typically include the principal.) The city school board then signed off on the teams' recommendations and forwarded the choices to the state. Mary Minter, the city's chief academic officer, is quoted in the report saying that principals often didn't realize selecting that option meant they could be replaced as well. She said that discussion "came later on... 'You mean I can be replaced, too?' It was after the fact. I think had they known, they would not have selected that option." Dr. Alonso is also quoted about principals being in the dark about their own fates: "I find it difficult to believe that in every single case, something which should be so basic to the conversation has escaped the debate until the very end."

Now that the cat's out of the bag, what option will schools select this year?

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At different times, pundits have said teachers care more about the support they get from their principal and their working conditions than how much they are paid. Maybe.

There's an interesting trend going on out west in Montana and Wyoming. Wyoming, which is rich in a growing coal mining revenues, has been pumping money into its schools, and in particular into its teacher salaries, according to a story in the Great Falls Tribune.  Beginning teacher salaries have risen quickly. In a few years, teachers can earn about $50,000, far more than in neighboring Montana. Montana spends about $5,000 per student on schools while Wyoming now spends $14,000, according to the Tribune.

What that means is that teachers are leaving in droves for Wyoming. Really. Montana's school board estimates that 70 to 80 percent of its new teachers are leaving. "We realize money isn't everything, but it sure does help," one teacher interviewed said.

Locally, Baltimore County's teachers have been complaining about not getting a raise last year, even as pay for teachers increased in other school districts.

And there's an interesting experiment going on in Washington, D.C., where the teachers may be voting next month on whether to give up tenure protections for a major boost in pay. There teachers who perform well could earn up to $131,000 a year.

It will be interesting to see whether they vote for the money as teachers in Montana are doing with their feet.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

As Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon positions herself to lobby for control of the Baltimore school system, New York is revisiting its state law -- adopted in 2002 and due to expire in June -- giving the mayor of the Big Apple oversight of the nation's largest school system.

The New York Times reports today that a commission appointed by that city's public advocate is recommending the continuation of mayoral control of schools. However, the commission is also recommending that structures be put in place to serve as a check on the mayor's power. It would give an independent panel more say over budget and policy decisions.

When Dr. Alonso served as deputy chancellor in New York, he had tremendous authority as a result of the mayoral control structure. He needed only to report to the chancellor, who had the backing of the mayor. He accepted his job as CEO in Baltimore on the condition that the school board give him the authority he needs to run the system without political interference. Even as observers say the board has given him more power than any Baltimore superintendent has had in decades, he still has to jump through more hoops here than he did in New York.

Education observers agree that the success of mayoral control of schools depends on a mayor's willingness to risk political capital to support controversial decisions made by a superintendent. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has shown that's not a question in New York. The same is now true in Washington, where Mayor Adrian Fenty has thrown his weight behind Chancellor Michelle Rhee. But should there be a limit on the authority vested in these arrangements? Or does a limit defeat the purpose, which is to minimize the bureaucracy that inhibits progress?

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Traditional educational thinking says that if you belong to certain socioeconomic groups, you are more likely to drop out of school, but the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based education group, says that academic indicators are a better way of judging that.

In some ways the idea might seem a "duh," but a paper by senior policy associate Lyndsay Pinkus shows that earlier intervention can reduce the risks for students dropping out. Researchers around the nation have found, the report says, that a failing grade in math or English, poor attendance or being retained a grade are red signals that a student is at risk of dropping out.

The alliance's brief on the subject can be found here.

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The magazine, Education Week, has a thought-provoking piece in its fall issue saying that cash incentives for teachers and students given out for each passing score earned on an Advanced Placement (AP) exam has been shown to increase the percentage of high ACT and SAT scores earned by the students.

In addition, the program increases the number of students enrolling in college, according to new research by Cornell University economist Kirabo Jackson.

The incentives have the biggest impact on African American and Hispanic students, boosting participation in AP courses and exams.

The program is successful among largely poor and minority students in Texas public schools. The researcher reports that there is a 22 percent average increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or above 24 on the ACT. The increase rises each year the student is in the program. There was an 8 percent increase in the number of students who enroll in a college or university in Texas from those schools that participated in the cash incentive program.

This raises a lot of questions about what motivates students and teachers and whether it is proper to pay students to do better in school. For more information on the research check out Education Next at hoover.org.

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National Public Radio had a story earlier this week about Barack Obama and John McCain's education platforms. A transcript is posted here, along with an audio link.

A couple interesting points the story made: Both of the candidates support merit pay for teachers. Obama has taken this position even though unions tend to oppose merit pay and the two major teachers unions are supporting him.

Obama has also proposed requiring all colleges of education to be accredited and rating how they do in preparing teachers. According to the story, one of his advisers is Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford education professor who believes strongly in the importance of teacher preparation. Darling-Hammond is a leading critic of alternative certification programs such as Teach for America (which, incidentally, is holding a press conference in Baltimore today to announce financial support for the program from the City Council). However, another of Obama's advisers is Michael Johnston from New Leaders for New Schools, which is essentially an alternative certification program for principals.

Both Obama and McCain support changing No Child Left Behind, but neither wants to scrap it altogether. McCain is interested in providing more tutoring to struggling students. Obama says NCLB is inadequately funded, and he wants to work with states to develop better tests measuring what students have learned and where they have weaknesses.

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The Schott Foundation for Public Education today released a report on the state of education as it pertains to African-American males. It also launched an interactive Web site with all sorts of interesting information about the achievement gap for black boys. Check it out here.

The report contains data not only for the 50 states, but also for their largest school districts. According to Schott's calculations, Maryland's graduation rate for black boys in 2005-2006 was slightly higher than the national average: 55 percent, compared with 47 percent nationally. That's due in part to the fact that Baltimore County reported one of the nation's highest graduation rates for African-American males, 72 percent. Montgomery County's rate was 69 percent and Prince George's was 59 percent. And then there was Baltimore City: 31 percent.

Using data from 2004-2005, the report said white, non-Hispanic boys were admitted to gifted and talented programs in Baltimore at twice the rate of black boys. Four times as many white boys as black participated in math Advanced Placement courses. Nine times as many white boys took science A.P. courses. Although this information is nearly four years old, it highlights the opportunities that have long existed for the small number of white students (less than 10 percent of total enrollment) in the city school system.

The report's release and the Web site launch coincided with this week's UNITY convention of 10,000 journalists of color, who gathered in Chicago.

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Fascinating article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine about new efforts to integrate school districts by class, now that the Supreme Court has outlawed assignments based on race.

While the issue is probably irrelevant in much of Baltimore City, where many white, middle class parents send their children to private schools, I could see it having legs in diverse suburban districts like Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

The article raises a host of interesting questions: How many poor students can a majority-affluent school accommodate without a perceived decline in quality? A significant number, the researchers quoted conclude. What conditions need to be in place for class-based integration to work? A Harvard economist says affluent and poor students must be together not only in the same building, but also in the same classes. If the poor kids are all put in low-level classes, it defeats the purpose. Will class-based integration lead to racial integration? In some cases yes, in others no.

The article mentions at least one school system where economics-based school assignments seem to be working. In Wake County, N.C., the system ensures that no more than 40 percent of students at a school come from a low-income area, and no more than 25 percent speak English as a second language. Test scores have improved among both black students and poor students. But in San Francisco, a diversity plan based on socioeconomics has resulted in racial resegregation of schools.

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We've been theorizing a lot on the blog this week about what caused the jump in test scores this year in Baltimore in particular and in general statewide. Liz's story today offers a possible explanation: The tests this year were shorter and better aligned with the Maryland state curriculum, so students were likely less tired taking them and less likely to be presented with material they hadn't learned. But officials say the material tested was just as difficult as last year. And Dr. Alonso points out that Baltimore students still improved more than their peers in the rest of the state.

Meanwhile, an article in the current Education Week reports on two studies in New York City and Chicago that linked an increase in highly qualified teachers serving poor and minority children to better test scores there. While the article only examines those two cities (and Illinois in general), it suggests a trend in urban districts nationwide. Baltimore is one of a handful of systems lauded for aggressive recruitment programs in hard-to-staff areas. "Both studies show a shift in the long-observed trend that the most-qualified teachers appear to teach at the more affluent schools, while the poorest schools are usually staffed by teachers who are new or less qualified," the article says. 

The New York study is here (sorry, it costs $5 to read the whole thing). The Chicago study is here.

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I'm a little late on this story out of Chicago that made news last week, but I thought it was worth coming back to, given our debates this past year about the use of cash for student incentives and our own recent drama about a car dealership's donation...

A 12-year-old seventh-grader in the Chicago public school system has won a Dodge Caliber for good attendance, four years before she's old enough to drive. (In the meantime, her parents are excited to use it.) Chicago students who had perfect attendance for any one of three three-month periods were eligible to win the car, which was donated to the school system, according to the Chicago Tribune. The girl, Ashley Martinez, won from a pool of 189,115 students eligible.

In the past, according to the Tribune article, the Chicago schools have offered attendance awards including "vacations to Wisconsin resorts, laptops, iPods and even paying a family's rent or mortgage for a month."

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The National Council on Teacher Quality issued a report yesterday concluding that most of the nation's education colleges are not doing enough to prepare prospective elementary school teachers to teach math. The council studied entry and exit requirements, curriculum, textbooks and state licensing tests for 77 education colleges in 49 states. It found only 13 percent of the schools were giving teachers adequate math training.

Kate Walsh, president of the council, said in a statement: "As a nation, our dislike and discomfort with math is so endemic that we do not even find it troubling when elementary teachers admit to their own weakness in basic mathematics. Not only are our education schools not tackling these weaknesses, they accommodate them with low expectations and insufficient content."

But there's good news for Maryland: The University of Maryland at College Park is among the 10 schools where the council determined the math preparation was adequate. Towson University is one of five that the report said would pass muster with improved focus and textbooks. That's better than the 37 schools, among them American University, that were found to fail on all measures. Some schools, including Hampton University and University of Richmond, don't require prospective elementary teachers to take any math classes at all.

Think you're qualified to teach elementary school math? See how you do on this test that the council says all elementary math teachers should be able to pass. 

UPDATE, 6/30: See the comments for a rebuttal from the dean of Amerian University's education school, who says the report was not compiled responsibly.

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A Fordham Institute report released yesterday says high-achieving students aren't making the same gains in test scores as the lowest achieving students. (See my story today.)

The report also has some fascinating data about what teachers think about their high-achieving students. For instance, teachers say that their schools do not make high-achieving students a top priority. And that apparently happens much more frequently at urban schools where there are high numbers of students in poverty. So that means that if you a high-achieving, minority student in an urban school, you are much less likely to have a chance to be challenged than if you go to a suburban school. That may not be particularly surprising, but it documents what has been believed for years.

In addition, teachers told the researchers that they feel guilty about the fact that their most gifted students don't get challenged enough. "I feel like sometimes we are cheating them ... cheating them out of their own personal glory.... They could be so much more magnificent in their own right and happier, because I think they feel a level of frustration that they have to sit by while we are babysitting," said one teacher who was quoted in the report by researchers Steve Farkas and Ann Duffett.

Interesting, too, is that while most teachers say the low achievers are getting more attention than others, they also don't think that is right. About half of teachers reported they thought every student should get equal attention.

In the same study, about half of high school teachers surveyed said they believe the advanced-level classes at their school are truly rigorous and challenging. Another 40 percent said they are watered down.

Teachers also said that too often parents push their children into the advanced classes they are unprepared for or don't want to be in.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Here's an interesting article about an initiative in Michigan aimed at reducing the size of high schools. It's an especially timely article for those of you who may be following the debate locally about school size, an issue recently brought into sharper focus in Baltimore County because of a failed proposal to expand Loch Raven High School.

Click here for my article from last week about the school board's decision to nix the expansion plan at Loch Raven High School. And here for my article on County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s response to the board's action.

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Frances Yancey-Olaifa, a 71-year-old great-grandmother who lives in Upper Marlboro, has earned a high school diploma and will graduate today in a ceremony held by the Literacy Council of Prince George's County.

And she's a youngster compared with John Lawrence Locher, who is 90 and received his high school diploma this week in Detroit.

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