Curriculum Matters

Study Will Examine Effectiveness of Sex Ed. Approaches

2009-11-20T18:50:25Z

Mathematica Policy Research was awarded a contract this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study the effectiveness of sex education programs in preventing teenage pregnancy.

The topic is timely because lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are in the midst of deciding how much money to authorize for sex education—and for what kinds of approaches—in health care reform legislation, which I just wrote about for Education Week. The health care legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives authorizes funding only for "comprehensive" sex education programs, which urge youngsters to delay sexual activity and aim to reduce the number of partners they have, but do not focus on abstinence. Such programs have a strong goal of increasing the use of contraceptives among teenagers.

The health care reform bill proposed by Democratic senators this week includes funding both for comprehensive sex education programs and for abstinence-based programs, which may discuss contraceptives but only in a context of how teenagers should abstain from sex.

The contract landed by Mathematica is an eight-year random assignment evaluation that is intended to document evidence on effective ways to reduce teen nonmarital sexual activity, pregnancy, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

A panel of health experts appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released an analysis of studies on different approaches to sex education. It found that comprehensive programs that teach about contraceptives and safer sexual practices help to reduce teenagers' risky sexual behavior and decrease the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The panel didn't find evidence that abstinence-based programs are effective in doing the same.

Virginia Gov. Wants Review of Minority Participation in Gifted Programs

2009-11-19T17:56:39Z

Before he leaves office, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has ordered a study of the low minority representation in the state's programs for gifted students.

The governor points to data showing that while African-American students make up 26 percent of the state's student population, only 17 percent of students in gifted education programs are black. Latinos account for nine percent of the student population, but only five percent of gifted students, he noted.

"[I]t's critical we assess any disproportionate barriers to enrollment so we can ensure students of all backgrounds have the opportunity to participate," Kaine said in a statement.

The study will be conducted by the Regional Education Laboratory Appalachia, a federally funded research center, and should be complete by the Spring of next year. That's after Kaine, a Democrat who is term-limited, leaves office. He will be succeeded by Republican Bob McDonnell, who won the gubernatorial race this month.

Former ETS Researcher on Common Standards

2009-11-19T14:48:12Z

Paul Barton, the former director of the policy-information center at the Educational Testing Service, takes issue with the draft common standards in written comments on the document.

Barton says the draft standards for college and career readiness seem "to be an extension of the current conventional wisdom seen in a number of arenas that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to public education, particularly at the high school level, and that all students need to acquire the same kind and level of knowledge for life after high school." Barton, who now works as an education consultant, argues that this approach is "deaf to the differentiation of student interests, motivations, learning styles, and the greatly differentiated labor market they will enter, as well as the differentiated structure of postsecondary education, and the need to make a start on cutting the dropout rate."

His observations in some ways echo the concerns of Stanford University scholar Mike Kirst, whose work Barton cites in his paper. Overall, Barton questions the wisdom of starting the standards effort with a focus on the end of the K-12 pipeline—as opposed to elementary grades—an approach that he describes as an effort to "bring uniformity to a wildly differentiated secondary school system."

I'm offering just a brief synopsis. Once you've read the essay, let me know if you agree with Barton's analysis.

Evaluation: Results Are Favorable for New Mexico's PreK Program

2009-11-18T20:10:58Z

Researchers evaluating New Mexico's preK program recommend that it be expanded because it has had a favorable impact on participants' learning. The preK classrooms in the program were particularly strong in "teaching and interactions," the researchers concluded, which takes into account general supervision, the use of language to develop reasoning, and interactions between staff and children and among children.

Children in the program improved significantly in language, literacy, and math compared with children who did not, according to data from the first three years of the program. The evaluation estimates that the rate of return to the state for every dollar invested is $5. It found that for each of the first three years of the program, participants scored significantly higher than their counterparts in early literacy and math skills. But children's language skills showed significant improvement only in the first two of the first three years of the program, which was established in 2005.

The researchers, who are from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, say that expanding the program is warranted. But they also made some recommendations for improvement. They said, for example, that support for early language and literacy is "fair" in the program, while support for early math skills is "poor." They recommended increasing opportunities for teacher training and ensuring that every lead teacher in the preK program have at least a bachelor's degree with specialized training in preschool education.

A Re-examination of Gender and Math/Science Careers

2009-11-18T17:13:53Z

A new book seeks to offer a "nuanced, balanced" examination of why women lag behind men in their representation in certain math and science fields. Yet by its very nature, the volume, The Science on Women and Science, is bound to ignite some impassioned chatter.

The book is a collection of essays by scholars who come at the topic in different ways and reach starkly different conclusions. Some argue that research suggests that gender biases are the overriding factor in males outnumbering females in physical science, engineering, and math. Others dispute that idea, quite strongly.

The volume is edited by Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who's written for years about claims of gender bias in math/science. Noted social scientist Charles Murray contributes an essay, as do Harvard University scholars Elizabeth Spelke and Katherine Ellison, and many others. In her introduction, Sommers presents the book as a fairer look at the issue than what was presented in a 2007 report by the National Academy of Sciences, which found that bias, as opposed to intrinsic ability, was a strong factor in discouraging women to enter math and science fields. "There are sensible and fair-minded scientists on all sides," she writes. "They should be free to argue without being intimidated, silenced, or compared to racists."

Some of the essayists, like Spelke and Ellison, argue that research shows that men and women have the same intrinsic cognitive abilities and motivation for math and science careers. They say there's also no evidence that market forces are going to correct those imbalances, as some suggest, so higher education institutions would have to act for change to occur. The evidence shows that gender stereotypes are having an impact on leading women away from math and science fields, the authors explain.

But others, like authors Jerre Levy and Doreen Kimura, have a different take. They argue that the "fundamental claim" of the Academies report that men outnumber women in certain math and science fields because of social barriers against females has "no scientific foundation." They say research has shown a connection between genetic and hormonal differences between males and females, which affect behavior and choice of occupation. They write:

"Although the magnitude of average sex differences in certain cognitive abilities has declined in the last forty years, none of these differences has disappeared or is likely to disappear. However, even if there were no cognitive sex differences in average mathematical or spatial ability, there would still be more males than females at the upper end of intellectual talent due to greater male variance. In consequence, there would still be more males than females who meet even minimum standards to be academic engineers, physical scientists, or mathematicians, and many more men than women with exceptionally high levels of talent."

If you're in the DC area, the AEI is hosting an event on the book tonight. They also promise a webcast after the fact.

The Creator of Wikipedia Turns to Education Videos

2009-11-17T19:42:00Z

The co-founder of Wikipedia has launched a Web site designed to offer free access to thousands of education-related videos for students ages 3-18.

Larry Sanger, who helped create Wikipedia and has since left the organization, says the new site, www.watchknow.org, will allow students and teachers to sort through a library of online videos by content, and pick out what they need. Topics range from math and science to history. The site is meant to house and organize videos that are free and available online, yet which most people don't know how to find.

The site was launched in October. So far it offers 11,000 videos in 2,000 categories. The contributions have come from National Geographic and Google Videos, among many other sources.

Sanger describes it as "YouTube meets Wikipedia." He adds in a statement: "WatchKnow.org links together content from traditional sites, and also allows users of the site to improve the organization of the video categories, which makes finding the video you need much easier."

I suppose there's no more appropriate way to sum up Sanger's background than by sending you to this page. His bio says he left Wikipedia seven years and has since been critical of the online encyclopedia. Wikis have become popular in K-12 classrooms over the years, despite educators' and others' worries about who is writing and controlling the content, and how it can be verified.

The project is funded the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, whose officials hope to have more than 50,000 videos on the site by the end of 2010. What will this site contribute, if anything, to the nation's classrooms?

U.S. Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Removal of Cuba Book

2009-11-17T18:39:46Z

Over at School Law, Mark Walsh reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals about the removal of a book from school library shelves in Miami-Dade County, Fla.

The school board's decision to remove the book was struck down by a federal court, but a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled that the school board didn't violate the First Amendment by removing the book.

Mark writes that a father in the Miami-Dade County, Fla., school district protested that his daughter's elementary school had the book. He contended the book ignored the realities of the Communist regime under leader Fidel Castro.

A Market for Math Teachers (But Hardly Anybody Else)

2009-11-17T16:41:17Z

These are tough times to be looking for work as a teacher.

Unless, it seems, you're hoping to become a math teacher.

That's the conclusion of a recent report, which finds that nationwide demand for teachers has fallen in all 60 fields examined over the past year. Only one subject area—math teaching—was found to be in "considerable demand," according to the latest version of an annual report released by the American Association for Employment in Education (subscription required). In recent years, more than a dozen subjects have had serious shortages, but not this year. Interesting that the demand for math teachers outpaces even that of other, traditionally high-need subjects like special education.

Districts are struggling to avoid layoffs and cuts in the dismal economy. And teachers who have jobs, even those who are on the cusp of retirement, are staying put, the report suggests. The job losses have come despite the huge infusion of federal funds around the country. This story in the Associated Press gives the picture on the ground in school systems in Kansas and Texas, where one school district had 5,000 applicants for 300 teaching jobs. Many teachers who were thinking of getting certified in one subject may be going back for more training in others, hoping to bolster their credentials, the story notes.

The report sums up the hiring scene this way:

"In 2009, job opportunities for educators dwindled dramatically, reflecting the steepest one-year decline in the past 29 years. This .28 point decline in opportunities coincided with the sharp decline in the U.S. economy. It appears that even with the promise of government stimulus funds and what seems to be an ending of the current economic downturn, education employers have reduced staff and are hesitant to hire in this uncertain market. It also appears that educators nearing retirement are hesitant to retire because of the tenuous nature of future health-care benefits coupled with a significant decline in the value of their retirement nest eggs.

The job prospects for newly graduated and unemployed educators is more challenging and likely will remain in this status until well after an economic recovery. This being said, there are still educator positions available, but perhaps not in the geographic area or desired position type. The high-need areas in special education, math, and some science reflect a lessening demand, but jobs are still available. Significant regional variations are reflected in the data."

All this is not to say that the job market for math and science teachers is going gangbusters. As my colleague Stephen Sawchuk reported recently, there are a lot more applicants, some of them entering the field through alternative certification, and a limited number of positions. One thing that employment reports cannot tell us (at least I haven't seen it) is what happens to the quality of instruction in a tough economy? If districts can afford to be choosy, and the best candidates are in demand, do test scores and student learning improve? Or would there always too many other factors in play to make a conclusion about that?

What's the hiring situation like in your state or district, and how are schools of education, and job candidates, responding?

What Should a Library Media Specialist Know and Be Able to Do?

2009-11-16T21:40:47Z

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has formed a committee to revise its standards for what an ideal library media specialist should know and be able to do. Already, more than 2,100 teachers nationwide have gotten National Board certification in the field of library media.

I'm familiar with the National Board, but it is news to me that the board applies its outstanding educator label to librarians as well as classroom teachers.

The committee to revise the existing standards includes a librarian from a private school, Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore., and from a university "ischool," the iSchool at Drexel University in Philadelphia, as well as from a number of public schools or districts.

The National Board expects to have a draft of the standards ready for public comment in late January, and the final standards are expected to be implemented later in 2010.

The Career-and-Tech Pathway to Literacy

2009-11-16T17:20:07Z

Can vocational education be revamped to boost literacy among struggling readers? The Association for Career and Technical Education believes that it can, and the organization highlights state efforts in Florida, Kentucky, and Maine as examples.

The programs serve students of different ages, but all of them attempt to build literacy skills within the context of hands-on classroom activities and job-related skills. One example cited in the association's issue brief is Florida's effort to combine remedial reading lessons with different types of academic content and workforce training. In the case of one high school, that means blending reading lessons within digital design.

Have a look. Could these approaches help struggling readers in your district?

Choosing and Promoting a Math Curriculum: Not as Easy as It Seems

2009-11-16T14:24:10Z

If ever you needed a reminder of why state and national officials are wary of attempting to dictate the curriculum in local schools, consider the experience of a single South Dakota district. Creating a uniform curriculum is not as easy as it seems.

Officials in the Rapid City school system settled on an approach to math teaching in 2002 that was built on an "inquiry"-based approach to the subject. (In general, this refers to teachers encouraging students to develop their own problem-solving approaches and reasoning skills, even as educators provide them with direction and help.) The South Dakota district had received a PRIME grant—Promoting Reflective Inquiry in Mathematics Education—from the National Science Foundation. It was designed to increase student achievement in math, boost the performance of Native Americans, and improve classroom instruction. Test scores rose, and the approach won the support of many teachers, administrators, and parents, according to this detailed story in the Rapid City Journal.

Yet as the article explains, individual school administrators have considerable leeway in choosing which instructional approaches are used in their schools, and some aren't fans of the PRIME approach. Some teachers and parents also have fought it. The resulting inconsistency in teaching approaches from school to school has created frustration in the community, the story says.

The story touches on many of the tangled issues that emerge as a district attempts to implement a new curriculum, particularly in math. First there's the divide between those who like the approach and those who don't—perhaps because the methods are a departure from the way they were taught. The district has to consider what textbooks to purchase, and where its approach meets state standards, which in South Dakota are about to be revised, according to the story. And when local school officials look for definitive research on which curricular approaches are most effective, they find that not a lot of research exists.

Inevitably, many readers will see this story as evidence for or against a particular math curriculum. I'll attempt to put that issue aside for the moment and focus on the point of the article itself. If a district settles on a math curriculum, how long does it take to implement it, and what factors will ensure that it takes hold? I've had school administrators tell me that having a consistent curriculum across schools is crucial, in that it helps ensure that students cover the necessary content, particularly in districts and states where students bounce from school to school. Do you agree?

Conquering Calculus, Before It's Too Late

2009-11-13T21:28:31Z

Calculus is a major stumbling block for incoming college freshmen. When students flunk or flail in that math class, it costs them time and money, in addition to the expense it brings to universities, which have to devote resources to remediation.

Now a new program at the Texas A&M University, "Retention Through Remediation," seeks to help incoming freshman clear the calculus hurdle—while allowing them to work from home, online.

It works this way: Exiting high school seniors will take a test to assess their math skills, and then be assigned individualized courses of study, which they will do from home using online tools. Participating students get access to online videos, homework, and quizzes. They will also receive help from "highly skilled tutors," math teachers from around Texas, who will communicate with them through various means, according to the university.

A post-test will determine if students are ready to move on to a college calculus course. If they're not, they can enroll in calculus and attend a "Just in Time" program, working once a week during the regular semester with a live tutor.

There will be a fee for the Retention Through Remediation program, but university officials predict the cost will be much lower than on-campus summer programs, which typically serve only 20 or 30 students and require on-site housing and other expenses.

The program, which is funded through a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, is scheduled to begin next year. There are plans to expand it to other schools around the country, A&M officials say.

G. Donald Allen, a math professor who helped create the program, assigns some hard cost estimates for students who don't make it in calculus. A student who can't pass calculus and delays his overall education by a semester costs his family $10,000. The price-tag for a two-semester delay can be $20,000, he estimates.

Not to mention the loss for the university, and for society, which might see a student discouraged from pursuing a job that requires math or science.

A Student Sows the Seeds of Innovation

2009-11-13T00:29:27Z

Over the years, I've heard of many enterprising teachers who've sought to build students' science skills while also teaching them about the world of entrepreneurship. When I read about a teenager named Adarsha Shivakumar, I came away thinking he could teach a course on the subject.

Shivakumar, whose family hails from India, is a sophomore at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, Calif. During his periodic trips to his grandparents' farm in the southern part of India, he grew increasingly frustrated by the prevailing poverty, the disappearance of trees from the landscape, and the overall environmental degradation. Much of the tree loss in the region, he found, stems from tobacco farming, which requires a lot of firewood for the heating and curing of tobacco leaves. That process also generates a lot of pollution.

So Shivakumar started looking for alternatives. He heard of Jatropha curcas, a small shrub, and saw a possible solution. While you can't eat Jatropha seeds, they produce biodiesel fuel, which is already in use in India. The plant can also be produced in little soil, with little water and fertilizer, and it can prevent erosion.

The teenager has partnered with various organizations in India to distribute Jatropha seedlings there and help farmer grow and sell the crop on their own, and give them an alternative to tobacco farming. Shivakumar has invested in the project in more ways than one: He used prize money from a spelling bee he won in California to buy seedlings from a biotech company and distribute them to women's self-help groups who have helped promote the project.

I learned of Shivakumar's work from his first-person account in Imagine magazine, a publication of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Last week, I wrote about the center's efforts to connect students with research scientists through live events, including one focused on swine flu and other pandemics, and through other Web tools.

Here's a link to Shivakumar's story, which students and teachers can look to for inspiration, ideas for science projects, or both.

Photo courtesy of Adarsha Shivakumar for Imagine magazine.

Final Federal Regs Attempt to Smooth the Path for Standards

2009-11-12T14:08:39Z

When the proposed Race to the Top Fund regulations were released early this year, they gave a competitive advantage to states that agreed to band together to create common standards. The problem was that the guidelines set more aggressive deadlines than many states were planning to meet, through the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

The final regs offer new language that attempts to give states a bit more leeway on standards. A preamble to the regs states:

"In response to comments indicating that some states would have difficulty meeting a June 2010 deadline for adopting a new set of common, kindergarten-to-grade-12 (K-12) standards, this notice extends the deadline for adopting standards as far as possible, while still allowing the department to comply with the statutory requirement to obligate all Race to the Top funds by September 30, 2010. As set forth in criterion (B)(1)(ii), the new deadline for adopting a set of common K-12 standards is August 2, 2010. States that cannot adopt a common set of K-12 standards by this date will be evaluated based on the extent to which they demonstrate commitment and progress toward adoption of such standards by a later date in 2010 (see criterion (B)(1) and Appendix B). Evidence supporting the state's adoption claims will include a description of the legal process in the State for adopting standards, and the state's plan, current progress against that plan, and timeframe for adoption.

[R]egarding the development and adoption of common, high-quality standards and assessments, the term 'significant number of states' has been further explained in the scoring rubric that will be used by reviewers to judge the Race to the Top applications (see Appendix B). The rubric clarifies that, on this aspect of the criterion, a state will earn "high" points if its consortium includes a majority of the states in the country; it will earn "medium" or "low" points if its consortium includes one-half or fewer of the states in the country."

So the document also appears to encourage more states to join a large coalition, rather than banding together in smaller groups of states to form shared standards and tests.

In a statement, Raymond C. Sheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association, said the department "took seriously the comments submitted by states. We appreciate their willingness to provide flexibility as states move toward the adoption of common core state standards."

States' schedules for adopting agreed-upon standards under the "Common Core" process are likely to vary a great deal, an NGA official explained recently. Will the new regulations do anything to smooth the path toward common standards and assessments?

'Work Groups' Announced for K-12 Common Standards

2009-11-10T18:12:03Z

Academic scholars, teachers, state officials, school administrators, and at least one librarian fill the ranks of the newly announced "work groups," for developing K-12 standards in English-language arts and math, the organizers of the project announced today.

The two teams will have the duty of completing the second phase of common state standards. The first phase was the drafting of college- and career-readiness standards, a draft of which was released a few months ago. The standards project, as many EdWeek readers know, is being guided by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, as part of an effort dubbed the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The goal is to bring more uniformity and consistency—and higher expectations—to the nation's classrooms, though many obstacles remain before the standards would actually take effect.

A complete list of the members is provided in the link at the top, but in English-language arts, the names include Michael Kamil of Stanford University; Tracy Robertson, an English coordinator with the Virginia Department of Education; Timothy Shanahan of the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Laura McGiffert Slover of Achieve, among many others. For all the librarians out there, one of your own made the list: Steve Delvecchio, of Seattle.

In math, we find Deborah Loewenberg Ball of the University of Michigan; Francis "Skip" Fennell, former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, who is a professor at McDaniel College in Maryland; Roger Howe of Yale University; Susan Wygant, a math specialist with the Minnesota Department of Education; James Madden of Louisiana State University; Vern Williams of Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax County, Va.; and Hung-Hsi Wu, of the University of California, Berkeley. Ball, Fennell, Williams, and Wu all served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which dealt extensively with elementary and middle grades math and preparing students for algebra. Fennell was also a player in putting together NCTM's "Curriculum Focal Points," which a couple years ago called for a more orderly approach to teaching math at those grade levels.

Some members of the work groups, observant readers will notice, also served on the college-and career-readiness document. As CCSSO/NGA have described this process, the work groups, behind closed doors, are producing the draft standards documents. (Last week, Dane Linn of NGA indicated that the K-12 group has been going about its business for a while now.) Their work is reviewed by "feedback" groups, who have been named previously and will remain the same. And finally, "validation" teams provide a final look before they are sent to state officials for approval. As my colleague Mary Ann Zehr has noted, a few validators are also members of the feedback groups, leading some to say that more separation of powers is needed.

In their announcement, NGA/CCSSO officials also said that another advisory group has been formed to provide guidance on the project. Members of this group include experts from Achieve, the ACT, the College Board, the National Association of State Boards of Education (whose members would eventually be presented with the finished product) and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.

Once you've had a look at work teams, give me your thoughts. Is there one field that is over-represented, or ignored, or did they get the right mix?