Monday, October 31, 2005

Arundel School Closes Achievement Gap

Arundel School Closes Achievement Gap

Over the past three years, this Anne Arundel school has achieved a goal that eludes most of the nation's public schools. It has closed the achievement gap between black and white students.

Among black students at North Glen, third-grade proficiency on the statewide test rose from 32 percent in 2003 to 94 percent this year, placing the campus among the top schools in Maryland for black students' performance. Across the third and fourth grades, a grand total of three black students, out of 37 tested, failed to attain proficiency. Blacks now outperform whites on several measures at the racially diverse campus, and white students perform very well.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Theories on Why Black Students in Fairfax Trail Virginia Peers

Theories on Why Black Students in Fairfax Trail Virginia Peers

Admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology depends in large part on academic achievement ["In Jefferson's New Class, Incomes Seem to Count," Extra Credit, Sept. 29], but achievement for black students in Fairfax is lagging that of blacks in other Virginia districts.

A study by Maria Casby Allen, a Fairfax school system parent, found that on the 2004 fifth-grade Standards of Learning test in reading, pass rates for black students were 85 percent in suburban Chesterfield County outside Richmond and 79 percent in Richmond and Norfolk. Only 74 percent passed in Fairfax County.

On the math test, 80 percent of black students passed in Chesterfield County, 75 percent in Richmond, 70 percent in Norfolk and 63 percent in Fairfax.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Minding the Gap in Gifted and Talented Programs

Minding the Gap in Gifted and Talented Programs

At board meetings and public appearances, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast speaks often about closing the achievement gap, but a recent report on the system's gifted and talented program demonstrates that the school system still has a ways to go if it hopes to ensure that all students have access to the kind of higher-level courses that are important to their success in school.

The issue of minority representation in gifted and talented, or GT, programs surfaced earlier this year when a group of black parents began asking why so few black and Hispanic students were identified as gifted and talented. Members of African American Parents of Montgomery County said school officials needed to rethink their identification process.

Use the link to read the entire article.

School Segregation Is Back With 'Vengeance,' Author Says

School Segregation Is Back With 'Vengeance,' Author Says
In a Connecticut Avenue bookstore, a bespectacled white man sounded an alarm yesterday evening about the public schools that serve black children in Washington and elsewhere. Segregation, he said, is alive and well a half-century after Brown v. Board of Education , depriving many urban black children of opportunities routinely afforded white students.

This divide, he said, compelled him to write "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Minority students are closing gap in math and reading - baltimoresun.com

Minority students are closing gap in math and reading - baltimoresun.com

Black and Hispanic students are narrowing the achievement gap with whites in reading and math, but overall the nation's progress is small or slipping.

The 2005 scores for grades four and eight come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most respected measure of how students perform nationwide. The results are noted in both academic and political circles because they cover math and reading - the two building-block subjects that schools are scrambling to improve.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Parents' Involvement Not Key to Student Progress, Study Finds - Los Angeles Times

A new study examining why similar California schools vary widely in student achievement produced some surprising results: Involved parents and well-behaved youngsters do not appear to have a major effect on how well elementary students perform on standardized tests.

But four other factors seemed to count a lot more, at least when combined in schools, according to EdSource, an independent group that studies state education issues.

The study of lower-income schools found that the strongest elements in high-performing schools are linking lessons closely to state academic standards, ensuring there are enough textbooks and other teaching materials, carefully and regularly analyzing student performance and putting a high priority on student achievement. The study's authors say that these criteria show that poverty and other challenges need not keep students from doing well.

Use the link to read the article.

The Seattle Times: Education: Racial tiebreaker will stand

The Seattle Times: Education: Racial tiebreaker will stand: "he 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld Seattle Public Schools' use of race as a tiebreaker in assigning students to popular high schools, and the plaintiffs vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling comes on the heels of decisions by federal appellate judges in the 1st and 6th Circuits upholding local school authorities' use of race as a factor in student-assignment plans in Massachusetts and Kentucky. Plaintiffs in all three cases sued on the basis that the school districts' plans violated their individual rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Seattle suspended its use of the racial tiebreaker after the 2001-02 year because of the litigation."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

USATODAY.com - Hospital inequalities widen the care gap

Studies by Bach and others suggest a different explanation: The USA's health care system remains as divided by race as its neighborhoods, schools and other aspects of American life.

"African-Americans live in very different places than whites, and in general they get treated at lousy hospitals," says Amitabh Chandra, an assistant professor at Harvard University and co-author of a new paper about health disparities.

The study, published today in the journal Circulation, suggests that black patients are concentrated in a small number of poorly performing hospitals. Nearly 70% of black heart attack patients went to only about 20% of medical centers, according to the study, which examined more than 1 million Medicare recipients from 1997 to 2001. At hospitals treating the most blacks, death rates for all heart attack patients were 19% higher than at the facilities that saw only white heart attack victims.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Office Stereotyping and How It Stifles

Office Stereotyping and How It Stifles: "A few weeks ago, Neil French, a well-known advertising executive, told 300 people that women 'don't make it to the top because they don't deserve to.' He elaborated, saying that women are apt to 'wimp out and go suckle something.'

Just about the same time, a new survey announced that gender stereotypes still exist in the workplace.

Use the link to read the entire article.


"

From a Seat on the Bus to the Seat of Government

Come nightfall today, the elderly and fearless Southern lady -- whose eyes had seen the glory of desegregation and freedom before she died, who had seemed to come out of nowhere and everywhere back in 1955 -- will begin a two-day rest in this city.

Rosa Parks is "going home," as the church folk have been saying. And the inference has been that her direction is heavenward.

She will lie tonight and part of tomorrow morning inside the Capitol Rotunda, the first woman accorded such an honor. At 1 p.m. tomorrow, there will be a memorial service at Metropolitan AME Church.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

CNN.com - Rosa Parks to lie in honor at Capitol - Oct 28, 2005

CNN.com - Rosa Parks to lie in honor at Capitol - Oct 28, 2005: "In death, Rosa Parks is joining a select few, including presidents and war heroes, accorded a public viewing in the Capitol Rotunda. It's the place where, six years ago, President Clinton and congressional leaders lauded the former seamstress for a simple act of defiance that changed the course of race relations.

On Sunday, Parks becomes the first woman to lie in honor in the vast circular room under the Capitol dome.

"

CNN.com - Georgia's only black engineering program set to close - Oct 28, 2005

CNN.com - Georgia's only black engineering program set to close - Oct 28, 2005: "Yemaya Stallworth came to Clark Atlanta University to get an engineering degree at a school where her teachers and classmates looked like her: black.

But that option may soon disappear -- if not for her, then for the students who come after her.

The historically black university has decided to eliminate the engineering department in May 2008 as part of a cost-cutting move at financially troubled Clark Atlanta. The department is Georgia's only black engineering program."

Friday, October 28, 2005

Rosa Parks and today's white youth - The Boston Globe

BEFORE RUSHING off to school, my seventh-grade daughter sat at the breakfast table scanning a newspaper story about Rosa Parks, the civil rights icon who died at age 92.

"Did you know who she was?" I asked. "Oh, Mom, what do you think?" she replied, a pre-teen's too-cool-for-you way of saying "yes."
Anna told me she learned about Parks at school, during "that holiday for black people" — which turned out to be not Kwanzaa, but Black History Month (February). "You should write about her," she said, "because, you know, there is still segregation."
Do you mean that black and white people don't live in the same neighborhoods and don't hang out together? I asked. "Yeah, write about that," she said.
This unexpected morning conversation proves that white suburban school children do learn about the contributions of courageous Americans like Rosa Parks. However, they learn about them in a bubble of time and space — within the context of a specific month, and often in schools with zero or few nonwhite classmates.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

ETS and Pearson Longman ELT Launch Powerful New English-Language Learning Program

ETS and Pearson Longman ELT Launch Powerful New English-Language Learning Program

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 24, 2005--ETS, creators of the TOEFL(R) test, the world's leading test of academic English, and Pearson Longman, the leading publisher of English-Language Teaching programs, today unveiled a powerful instructional program to help people learn English and build the skills tested on the next generation TOEFL Internet-based test (TOEFL iBT). TOEFL iBT is a breakthrough in testing that emphasizes integrated skills and communicative competence and allows students to demonstrate the English skills needed for academic success."

Use the link to read more about the program.

Charlotte Observer | 10/22/2005 | Middle school closes urban achievement gap

Charlotte Observer | 10/22/2005 | Middle school closes urban achievement gap: "The founders of one of the most successful middle schools in America were two of this year's recipients of the UNC Chapel Hill General Alumni Association's Distinguished Young Alumni Awards. Dacia Toll and Doug McCurry, Morehead Scholars who graduated in 1994, opened Amistad Academy, a public charter school in New Haven, Conn., six years ago. They wanted to see if a school tailored to the needs of disadvantaged urban children could close the achievement gap.
It can and it does.
In August 2004 the school was a subject of a PBS documentary which illustrates Amistad's success. Amistad is a school that is 97 percent African American and Latino, 84 percent who qualify for free lunch. Most students enter the fifth grade scoring an average of two years below grade level, yet by the end of their eighth-grade year, they are not only scoring as well as the wealthiest suburban students, in some cases they are even surpassing them."

Use the link to view the entire article.

The Thread That Unraveled Segregation

Civil Rights Icon Dies at Age 92
Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday, Oct. 24, 2005. She was 92.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

80% of Poor Lack Civil Legal Aid, Study Says

80% of Poor Lack Civil Legal Aid, Study Says: "At least 80 percent of low-income Americans who need civil legal assistance do not receive any, in part because legal aid offices in this country are so stretched that they routinely turn away qualified prospective clients, a new study shows.Roughly 1 million cases per year are being rejected because legal aid programs lack the resources to handle them, according to the study, 'Documenting the Justice Gap in America,' by the Legal Services Corp. (LSC), which funds 143 legal aid programs across the country."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Education

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Education

CARROLLTON – Even kindergartners are bringing iPods to class these days. But schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch district aren't confiscating the portable music players. They're paying for them.
The district's kindergartners jack up Apple iPods during class to help master vocabulary. In all grades, English as a second language students use the devices to learn the language.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Painkillers Understocked in Minority Neighborhoods, Study Says

Painkillers Understocked in Minority Neighborhoods, Study Says: "Pharmacies in black neighborhoods are much less likely to carry sufficient supplies of popular opioid painkillers than those in white neighborhoods, a new study has found, leading researchers to conclude that minorities are routinely undertreated for chronic pain.

The study found that the disparity between what is available to patients in majority-black neighborhoods compared with majority-white areas had little to do with income levels, as pharmacies in wealthy black neighborhoods were no more likely to carry the prescription painkillers than those in poorer black neighborhoods. In wealthy white neighborhoods, however, pharmacies were far more likely to carry sufficient stock than in poor white communities."

Use the link to read the entire article.

newsobserver.com | Education

newsobserver.com | Education: "Fear of 'acting white' is 'not the issue'

By PATRICK WINN, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL -- Fears of being mocked for 'acting white' don't cause many black students to avoid good grades or advanced classes, according to a new study.

But too often, the study says, educators use the 'acting white' excuse as a cop out, an explanation for why black students don't score as well on average as whites.

Straight-A students of all races are equally susceptible to the 'geek' or 'stuck-up' label, according to the report, published in August in the American Sociological Review."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Identifying ‘achievement gap’ just the beginning

Identifying ‘achievement gap’ just the beginning: "Cindy Kerr has seen firsthand how low expectations and prejudice can play out in the county’s public schools.

Several years ago, she attended a parent-teacher conference for a student who was having trouble in school.

The teacher asked if Kerr, who is white, was there because she was the school’s PTA president. He was ‘‘flabbergasted,” she said, to learn that the student who was having trouble was her nephew, the product of a mixed-race family.

‘‘From the way he dresses I thought he was one of them,” Kerr recalled the teacher saying.

‘‘One of them?” she asked.

‘‘A thug,” the teacher replied.

‘‘He didn’t know he [my nephew] came from a good family,” said Kerr, who is president of the county council of PTAs. ‘‘[My nephew] had been labeled and didn’t have the same expectations because he dressed different or looked different.”

The conversation was emblematic of the complex challenge the public school system faces in addressing the growing achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian classmates."

Use the link to read the complete story.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Schools, Public Schools, School Districts - SchoolMatters

Schools, Public Schools, School Districts - SchoolMatters: "Helping All Students Learn: Identifying School Districts Across the U.S. that are Significantly Narrowing Achievement Gaps

Introduction

In far too many classrooms across America, the academic performance of black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students is more likely to lag behind that of their white or more well-off classmates.

It is no mystery that these longstanding achievement gaps exist; they have been well documented by researchers for decades, and their closure is one of the most persistent challenges in American education. In fact, narrowing and ultimately closing achievement gaps on states' reading and math tests is one of the explicit goals of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, and the impetus behind many school improvement efforts across the nation.

Yet the challenge of narrowing achievement gaps is a more complex undertaking than is often realized. For example, where racial achievement gaps are concerned, it is not enough to simply decrease the difference in the average proficiency rates between white and minority students, because the gap can narrow as the result of one group's falling or static test scores. This is illustrated when a higher-performing group's scores decline, while a lower-performing group's scores remain stable. The result: a narrowed gap without any improvement in achievement. Therefore, a narrowing achievement gap is most significant when the average proficiency rates of both groups being compared increase .

Equity in achievement levels between different student groups is a critically important goal that is receiving well-deserved attention by educators and policymakers alike. However, casual observers of racial achievement gaps may erroneously infer that low academic performance is a problem primarily among minority children. While it is true that when compared to white students, a higher percentage of black and Hispanic students fail to demonstrate 'proficiency' on many states' reading and math tests, a higher number of whites fail to do so in many states. In other words, whites, not minorities, frequently make up the greatest number of students lacking proficiency in reading and/or mathematics compared to any other racial group. Moreover, Asian students-themselves a minority group in most American communities-are more likely than any other racial group to meet or exceed performance standards on many states' tests. "

Use the link to read the entire report.

Are You a Racist? With the Cast of 'Crash'

Are You a Racist? With the Cast of 'Crash': "Racism is a system in which we all participate, says Professor Ray Winbush, race relations expert and Director of the Institute for Urban Affairs at Morgan State University. Use the link to answer the questions and see how your results compare."

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith | PBS

Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith | PBS: "PBS WILL BROADCAST MAKING SCHOOLS WORK WITH HEDRICK SMITH
AS A PROGRAM OF NOTE
NATIONWIDE, PRIME TIME, OCTOBER 5, 9-11 PM No topic worries American families more than the quality of our schools. MAKING
SCHOOLS WORK with Hedrick Smith offers a rare and often surprising look at success
in unexpected places, with enormous implications for public schools nationwide."

High Court to Hear Md. Special-Ed Case

High Court to Hear Md. Special-Ed Case: "Jocelyn and Martin Schaffer realized their son Brian was having trouble learning when, as a toddler, he was slow in beginning to speak and didn't like to color or draw. When he was old enough, they put him in a private school, but soon the teachers there told the Potomac family that Brian needed even more help.

The family turned to the Montgomery County school system, which developed a special education plan for Brian, who by then was in seventh grade. But the Schaffers thought the plan was inadequate, and when the county would not alter it, they went to court to try to get it changed."

With more than 6.4 million school-aged children in the United States receiving special education, such disputes are not uncommon. How to settle them has been the difficulty. And now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide.

The justices will hear oral arguments today on who bears the burden of proof in such legal disputes, parents or school systems, with the outcome likely to have a significant impact on the country's schools and special education.

Use the link to read the entire article.

AERA.net

AERA.net: "Second Annual Brown Lecture in Education
Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 6 p.m.
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.

Claude M. Steele has been selected to present this special AERA lecture, which focuses on equality and equity in education research. A Stanford University psychologist, Professor Steele has conducted research which has changed how social scientists think about prejudice and stereotypes. On September 1, Professor Steele becomes director of the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, an independent organization dedicated to advancing knowledge about human behavior through research. The center is located in Stanford, California."

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Top Graduates Line Up to Teach to the Poor - New York Times

Top Graduates Line Up to Teach to the Poor - New York Times: "Lucas E. Nikkel, a Dartmouth graduate, wants to be a doctor, but for now he is teaching eighth-grade chemistry at a middle school in North Carolina, one of nearly 2,200 new members of Teach for America.

'I'm looking at medical school, and everybody says taking time off first is a good idea,' he said. 'I think I'm like a lot of people who know they want to do something meaningful before they start their careers.'"

For a surprisingly large number of bright young people, Teach for America - which sends recent college graduates into poor rural and urban schools for two years for the same pay and benefits as other beginning teachers at those schools - has become the next step after graduation. It is the postcollege do-good program with buzz, drawing those who want to contribute to improving society while keeping their options open, building an ever-more impressive résumé and delaying long-term career decisions.

This year, Teach for America drew applications from 12 percent of Yale's graduates, 11 percent of Dartmouth's and 8 percent of Harvard's and Princeton's. The group also recruits for diversity, and this year got applications from 12 percent of the graduates of Spelman College, a historically black women's college in Atlanta.

All told, a record 17,350 recent college graduates applied to Teach for America this year. After a drop last year, applications were up nearly 30 percent. Teach for America accepted about a third of this year's Ivy League applicants, and about a sixth of all applications.

Use the link to read the entire article.

DenverPost.com - LOCAL NEWS

DenverPost.com - LOCAL NEWS: "A persistent achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian classmates permeates Colorado schools - from the wealthiest, top-rated districts to the poorest and most rural - newly released state data show.

There were a few exceptions to that rule. But from Boulder Valley, which had some of the largest gaps in the state, to top-ranked Cherry Creek High, to the Yuma School District, data from the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests indicate many schools are struggling to bring all their students to the same performance level.

At Cherry Creek High, for example, 82 percent of the white ninth-graders were at least proficient on last school year's writing test and 41 percent of Latino ninth-graders could write at grade level.

At Manhattan Middle School of Arts and Academics in Boulder, 88 percent of white students were proficient in sixth-grade writing, but only 24 percent of the Hispanic students were.

'The achievement gap exists on all economic levels,' said Glenn E. Singleton, executive director of the California-based Pacific Educational Group and a consultant for the Cherry Creek Schools."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

NEA: NEA Today: October 2005 Up Front

NEA: NEA Today: October 2005 Up Front: "
What's not in a name

Expect More from Ebony

Do you think Ebony is as smart as Emily? Unfortunately, the answer might be no.

A University of Florida (UF) professor, who examined academic data on more than 50,000 students with identifiably African-American and Caucasian names, found that Demetrius and Deja paid a price for those handles. When teachers and administrators selected students for gifted programs, a 'Jake' was more likely to get the nod than a 'Jamal'?even if they had identical test scores.

It's about low expectations, says UF's David Figlio?and eventually it translates into lower test scores for the kids. When checking into sibling pairs, one with a 'regular' name and the other with a 'racial' name, he found the kids who had names associated with low socioeconomic status scored lower in reading and math. Meanwhile, siblings with Asian-sounding names did better than their Anglo-sounding sisters and brothers!

NEA: Priority Scholarships

NEA: Priority Scholarships: "The Foundation and the National Education Association believe that pre-K through 12 curriculum should be taught by licensed teachers. We recognize that in certain urban, suburban, and rural communities not every teacher is licensed. In an effort to help teachers become fully licensed, the Foundation and NEA have agreed to join forces to assist teachers who desire to gain full licensure.

The Foundation and NEA are offering financial assistance and professional development assistance to help teachers who are working under provisional certification and teacher candidates. Assistance is offered in the following areas:

* Tuition
* Books
* Support for preparing to take a state teacher licensure examination


To be eligible for this program you must be currently employed as a teacher in a K-12 public school, or currently enrolled in an accredited school of education. Scholarship winners must commit to teach a minimum of three years in identified communities, to be locally determined.

Scholarships will be made through Historically Black Colleges and Universities in selected areas throughout the United States. If you are interested in participating in this program, please fill out the attached short questionnaire and we will determine your eligibility and an appropriate local HBCU for you to work through.
"

New Orleans's Black Colleges Hit Hard

New Orleans's Black Colleges Hit Hard

Concern is growing among black educators about the future of New Orleans's three historic African American universities, which were hit much harder by Katrina -- and have fewer resources with which to recover -- than the city's other major colleges.

Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Southern University at New Orleans got smacked with at least $1 billion in flood and fire destruction -- by far the worst damage of all the city's institutions of higher education.

Use the link to read the entire article.

New principal gets kids involved in RAP

New principal gets kids involved in RAP

Andrew Winter has just begun as the new principal at Greencastle Elementary in Silver Spring, but he’s already ushering in new academic programs and initiatives to get parents and community involved in the school.
Monday morning, the school held its first classes of the new extracurricular program, Realizing Academic Potential. The RAP program allows students to receive extra schooling in math and reading — two core skills tested by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

‘‘Based on the projected enrollment, the number of students this might affect is about 25 percent, including students who just miss the proficient level on the [Maryland State Assessment tests],” he said. ‘‘It’s not a homework club — it’s a program to give them an extra hour of instruction for reading and math each day.”

The program, which serves students whose parents opt-in, is scheduled for four days each week before and after school.

Use the link to read the entire article.