Study shows significant midyear turnover among D.C. students

Thousands of students move in and out of the District’s traditional and charter schools during the middle of the academic year, according to a new report, a significant level of student transfer that raises broad questions about how the city’s public education is delivered and funded, reports the Washington Post. The report, from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, analyzes the movement of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade during the 2011-12 school year…

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White House allies produce preschool-for-all plan

The first part of the proposal would cost the government $84.2 billion over the first decade.

Days before President Barack Obama outlines his agenda for the coming year, a think tank with close ties to the White House is outlining a plan that would provide preschool for all children within five years.

The Center for American Progress proposal, released Thursday, provides a road map for how the Obama administration could move forward with pre-kindergarten programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds. For families with younger children, federal subsidies for child care would increase to an average $7,200 per child and the number of students in Early Head Start programs would double.

“We’re trying to ensure all children are ready to learn when they get to school,” said Neera Tanden, the president and CEO of the think tank and a former top policy official in the Obama administration. “Investing in early learning and pre-K is the best investment that we can make. The return on investment is significant.”…Read More

The tangled webs of private influence on public school reform

Last February, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization called In the Public Interest, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for private eMails and other files from Indiana school superintendent Tony Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education in an effort to track the extent of private influence on public education policy. Indiana, as public school teacher Doug Martin details in this article on the Schools Matter website, has stonewalled, reports the Washington Post

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Turnaround school takes history class to the streets

Students led their teachers out of school, onto a city bus, and to a housing complex they call “Skittles,” as they got a start rewriting a local history book with on-the-street scenes from New Haven neighborhoods, the New Haven Independent reports. The 11 students from High School in the Community (HSC) took the trip Thursday as part of a “Discover New Haven” class. The class has been taking walking tours to explore the city and updating an outdated history text about New Haven’s neighborhoods. They started out close to home, downtown and in Wooster Square. Teachers Jack Stacey and Matthew Presser rounded up students at lunchtime Thursday and set out for a first destination a bit farther away: the banks of the Quinnipiac River in Fair Haven. As they stepped out the door, students got the chance to teach their teachers something: How to take the bus…

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Miami-Dade Superintendent on public schools, immigration, and the FCAT

It’s hard to imagine more than a handful of jobs more difficult than that of Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Huffington Post reports. The nation’s 4th-largest school system faces challenges far beyond the usual budget woes and teacher merit pay squabbles: students from 160 countries speak 56 different languages, the district is tasked with providing quality education for all in a city with jaw-dropping income disparity, there are 53,000 employees to manage, and Dade County’s history of managing anything effectively is, well, let’s just say it’s checkered. But Alberto Carvalho, who had worked his way through university after immigrating from Portugal, leapt at the chance in 2008 after the plagued district’s previous leader was ousted amid much controversy and financial drama. And though MDCPS still faces their fare share of battles — crumbling facilities, for one — the results have been impressive: 13 failing ‘F’ schools have been reduced to none, math and reading scores show MDCPS students rank above their peers in other large, urban districts, and the county just celebrated its highest graduation rate of all time

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Activist targeting schools, backed by big bucks

During her tumultuous three years at the head of the Washington D.C. public schools, Michelle Rhee set off a lot of fireworks, Reuters reports. She’s still doing it–on a national stage. Rhee has emerged as the leader of an unlikely coalition of politicians, philanthropists, financiers and entrepreneurs who believe the nation’s $500 billion-a-year public education system needs a massive overhaul. She has vowed to raise $1 billion for her national advocacy group, StudentsFirst, and forever break the hold of teachers unions on education policy. StudentsFirst has its own political action committee (PAC), its own SuperPAC, and a staff of 75, including a cadre of seasoned lobbyists Rhee sends from state to state as political battles heat up. She has flooded the airwaves with TV and radio ads in a half dozen states weighing new policies on charter schools, teacher assessment and other hot-button issues. To her supporters, Rhee is a once-in-a-generation leader who has the smarts and the star power to make a difference on one of the nation’s most intractable public policy issues…

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D.C. chancellor announces new 5-year education plan, warns of closures

D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson introduced a new five-year plan that calls for higher-achieving public schools with longer days and better graduation rates, but she warned that paying for improvements will require closing some campuses, the Washington Post reports. The plan is Henderson’s clearest and most specific articulation of a long-range vision since replacing Michelle A. Rhee in October 2010. It is also the latest in a series of moves aimed at placing her own imprint on attempts to overhaul the historically low-performing system. In February, for example, she proposed that her office be given authority to open charter schools to raise academic achievement…

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Opinion: The loss of solitude in schools

In education discussions, we hear about the need for more concrete standards, or for less testing, or for more testing, or for richer curriculum, or for better facilities, or for more attention to students’ individual needs, says Diana Senechal, the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities and curriculum advisor and teacher at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science & Engineering in New York City, for the Washington Post. My book, Republic of Noise, discusses a problem related to all of these: the loss of solitude. Education is in large part solitary; it involves a meeting of mind and subject. Our schools emphasize a great deal of activity and group work but not the intense, focused, playful, independent work of the mind. By solitude I do not mean simply physical removal from others, but rather the aloneness that we carry and can shape in various ways. One can be solitary in a class discussion: that is, one can speak out when one has something to say, and listen for the rest of the time…

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A first-hand look inside a flipped classroom

Teachers say that even though the pilot is over, they won’t go back to the old way of teaching.

There have been many school reform trends over the past few years: student response systems, video games for math, mobile phones for learning—but none have completely transformed the notion of learning like the flipped classroom.

Flipped learning, in essence, turns the idea of traditional classroom instruction on its head by asking students to watch videos of teacher lectures for homework, then apply the lesson with the teacher in the classroom.

Using this method, proponents say, teachers have the opportunity to help students learn as individuals, and students can learn concepts more quickly.…Read More

Experts share their ed-tech predictions for the new year

More students will have access to personalized learning opportunities, and competency-based learning will begin to take hold in 2012, experts predict.

We recently asked a handful of education and ed-tech experts for their thoughts on what the future holds for 2012—and beyond.

Nearly all agreed that technology’s potential to create personalized, student-centered learning environments will be even more fully realized in the coming year, thanks to powerful developments in blended instruction, data analytics, formative assessment, and more. But one expert warned that achievement gaps between privileged and disadvantaged children will only increase if income gaps and unemployment rates aren’t brought under control.

Here’s what the experts had to say. What do you think? Share your thoughts—and your own ed-tech predictions for 2012—in the comments section below.…Read More

Watch: rEDesignMyEdu Twitter campaign seeks K-12 ideas from young people

While lawmakers seek to make sweeping changes to public education at the national and state levels, some University of Michigan students are looking to reshape K-12 education from the bottom up, the Huffington Post reports. Campus group rEDesign seeks input from students on how best to fix a broken system in which a wide achievement gap remains, and students — both privileged and underserved–struggle to be succeed academically and be globally competitive.

“The only demographic who haven’t been engaged to systemically transform the education system is young people,” the group writes on DoSomething.org. In a new campaign, rEDesign wants college students to submit ideas on how best to redesign public education in the U.S…

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Principals share secrets to positive school culture

Positive school culture is key to student and teacher success, principals say.

Turning around low-performing schools and improving educator morale might seem daunting as school leaders are being asked to do more with less, but some leaders have made marked improvements in their schools with determination and dedication to maintaining a positive school culture.

In a Dec. 8 Education Trust webinar, two school principals detailed how they transformed their schools into positive places where students, teachers, and staff enjoyed their learning and teaching experiences.

In 2001, Ware Elementary School in Fort Riley, Kan., was designated “On Improvement” owing to its low student achievement. Deb Gustafson, who became the school’s principal that year, described the school culture and climate as “toxic.”…Read More