Curriculum Matters

Scholarships for Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools

2009-11-09T14:19:17Z

Math and science teachers in Michigan will be eligible for stipends to pay for their master's degree training if they commit to working in high-need schools, thanks to a new project backed with millions of dollars in philanthropic support.

That undertaking, organized through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, will devote $16.7 million over a five-year period to teacher training. It is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Teachers will receive stipends of $30,000 to complete a master's degree in education and commit to teaching for three to five years in disadvantaged schools. As many as 240 teachers are expected to receive stipends during that time period. College seniors, recent graduates, and career-changers are eligible.

The goal of the program is not only to improve K-12 teaching, but also to revamp teacher education at the university level. Michigan universities that take part in the program are each expected to chip in $500,000 of their own funding and redesign their programs by establishing a "collaborative relationship" between their schools of arts and sciences (typically home to math and science majors) and their schools of education. Many university officials and researchers have shown an increased interest in narrowing the traditionally standoffish point of view between those two academic programs. As it now stands, many math and science majors leave campus without ever having considered teaching. And those that do teach are uncertain how to apply the math and science skills they've learned in a classroom setting. The Woodrow Wilson program is not the only one to take an interest in closing this divide. The UTeach program also seeks to build better relations between different academic programs. A major initiative is under way to replicate the UTeach approach on campuses nationwide.

Even before its Michigan effort gets started, the Woodrow Wilson fellowship program had already been operating a math- and science-stipend program in Indiana. Four universities in that state are taking part. That project is being independently evaluated by the Urban Institute, a research institution in Washington, according to the Wilson program.

(Re)Inspecting the STEM Pipeline

2009-11-06T16:33:36Z

Last week I wrote about a study that drew some intriguing conclusions about the state of the "pipeline" of students entering math and science studies and fields. The analysis, by Hal Salzman of Rutgers University and Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University, found that the flow of students from K-12 schools to the workforce appears to be quite strong, contrary to the assertions of many policymakers today.

To the extent that students are leaving the pipeline, the authors found, they tend to be high-achieving students. In other words, young people don't seem to be fleeing those fields because of lack of ability, but because of other factors—such as that they don't find those jobs attractive for whatever reason.

Now, an organization that represents businesses, research universities, and foundations, who have a major interest in maintaining the "STEM" pipeline, is offering a critique of the study's methodology and conclusions. The Business-Higher Education Forum, in a paper made available to its members, says the loss of high-performing students in STEM was more likely explained by the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000—not by college or businesses not doing enough to keep them.

"Students rationally voted with their feet as jobs vanished from an imploding sector of the economy," the BHEF says. Recent data, they say, shows an upswing of interest in engineering and computer science studies in recent years.

The BHEF, in examining the data in the Salzman/Lowell study, also asserts that it judges STEM in isolation, and people in other studies/careers tend to abandon those interests at similar rates. But a broader issue the study doesn't address, says BHEF Executive Director Brian Fitzgerald, is that STEM-related talents, particularly in technology, are increasingly demanded by businesses that, strictly speaking, have not been considered "STEM"-oriented in the past. He cites the growing need for STEM talent in the insurance industry, as one example. The business reps the BHEF works with talk often about the shift away from a manufacturing economy, and how important science- and math-related skills are becoming in their workplaces. The study doesn't account for that, he says.

"Across fields, more will be demanded," Fitzgerald told me. "Every major corporate sector is undergoing a shift, with technology at its core."

I contacted Salzman, who responded to BHEF's points. He acknowledges that the dot-com bust may have affected students' career choices, but says that ultimately proves the study's point: that STEM choices are market-driven. "I'm not sure [the pipeline is] 'broken,' if students choose to leave a field that is in decline," he wrote in an e-mail.

Salzman also says that, contrary to the BHEF's critique, the authors are not saying that top-achieving students avoiding STEM simply because companies aren't making those jobs attractive enough. The key point is that students are responding to what they know of job market conditions— and that it's not a matter of them not being academically gifted enough.

For instance, Salzman, who has studied labor markets extensively, says his research has shown that mid-level and senior engineering workers voice satisfaction with their careers, overall, but are concerned it won't be a good or stable a job in the future.

"The decline in retention from college to first job might also be due to loss of interest in STEM careers, but alternatively, top STEM majors may be responding to market forces and incentives," Salzman said by e-mail. "We tried to be very clear that there are number of possible explanations, and that the key point is that enrollments are sensitive to market conditions. This, then, would be entirely consistent with the [BHEF's point about dot-coms]. ... In fact, in terms of IT, we make that very case in a couple of earlier papers."

He also says when he and Lowell have written on this topic in the past on a similar theme, they've asked critics to provide data backing up the claim that demand for STEM jobs outstrips the supply of qualified talent. No such data has emerged, he said.

I'll invite readers to offer their own analysis of this debate, which—no matter what you come down—surely reflects one of the most important education-meets-labor market questions out there today.

U.S. Sen. Murray Introduces K-12 Literacy Bill

2009-11-05T18:44:16Z

Today, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, introduced a literacy bill into the U.S. Congress that would provide $2.35 billion in funding for literacy programs from kindergarten to 12th grade. The bill would replace federal reading programs such as Reading First and Striving Readers. A summary from Murray's office says that at least 10 percent of the bill's funding would go to early-childhood education, at least 40 percent would go to students in grades K-5, and at least 40 percent would be spent on students in grades 6-12. If the bill were passed and fully funded, it would give a substantial boost to adolescent literacy programs.

The federal government's only reading program that focuses on adolescents, Striving Readers, is financed with $35 million for the current fiscal year.

A spokesman for Murray said that a similar literacy bill (see a summary) is expected to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives within the next two days.

I wrote about a draft of the literacy bill this summer. At that point, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, who had co-sponsored the Striving Readers legislation with Murray, was expected to be a sponsor as well. But the press release I received today about the introduction of the bill in Congress doesn't list him as having endorsed the bill. It doesn't name any Republicans as sponsors.

Draft K-12 Standards Expected by Mid-December

2009-11-05T14:30:15Z

Those of you who've been wondering when the next round of common, multistate standards would appear may want to clear some time in mid-December. That's when the first draft of K-12 standards are likely to be unveiled, says one of the officials leading that process.

Dane Linn of the National Governors Association, one of two organizations guiding the Common Core State Standards Initiative, said at a forum on Wednesday that committees have been working on the K-12 document for a while now and a draft should be ready by the middle of next month. The K-12 document, as many readers know, is part two of the multistate standards project. Part one was the unveiling of draft college and career-readiness standards, back in September.

Officials from the NGA and Council of Chief State School Officers also expect to have members of a "validation" committee review the K-12 and end-of-high school documents at the same time, and have them approved by February, Linn added.

Linn was speaking on a panel on national standards hosted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, in Washington. Joining him at the event, which was moderated by Chester Finn, Fordham's president, were Sheila Byrd Carmichael, an education policy consultant; Stephen Wilson, a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University; and Sandy Kress, who was a senior adviser to George W. Bush and involved in the crafting of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Linn also said his team has surveyed the state officials they work with about how soon they might adopt common standards, once those documents are complete. Of 41 states that responded, 16 predicted that work could be done in one to six months, Linn said; 15 said it could take 6-12 months; 10 others indicated it would take 12 months or more.

What remains unclear is how the states' schedules for adopting common standards will mesh with the Race to the Top guidelines, which seem to set a more aggressive timeline for state action, as my colleague Michele McNeil noted in a recent story.

The Obama administration has proposed giving a competitive advantage to states applying for $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funding if they adopt common standards. It has also offered $350 million in competitive federal aid to states to craft common assessments based on common standards. Finn asked the NGA official if he expected that all states would adopt one common test, or if consortia or groups of states would band together to create their own assessments. Linn said Common Core officials had been talking with state leaders about the "pros and cons," of each approach and he expected a clearer picture to emerge in the next month or so.

Kress, during his opening remarks, argued that the standards won't mean much unless states agree to revamp teacher training and instructional materials to make the effort worthwhile. They'll also need good tests that measure what the standards call for and set high passing thresholds, he said. Without all that, standards amount to a "leaky bucket," Kress said, quoting from a recent paper by Russ Whitehurst, of the Brookings Institution. He also said the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, before rewarding states with federal funding for common standards, should make sure they're taking steps "to actually implement them, and effectively so."

"I say unless a state can can show it's doing all of these things," Kress said of standards, "what good are they?"

Want to hear more? Fordham's event was streamed live, and a recording should be available soon at the institute's site.

Putting Science in Plain English

2009-11-04T21:11:55Z

Many scientists have a lot to say. Unfortunately, a large swath of the public at large has trouble understanding what it is they're talking about.

This is a problem, many scientists agree, not just because important scientific facts and ideas are misunderstood, or because those topics end up getting ignored in the public sphere. The language barrier also makes it difficult for the public, including K-12 students, to grasp why science is important at all, and how it affects their lives.

In reporting a story recently, I was directed to an online resource that seeks to help scientists overcome these barriers. It's called "Communicating Science: Tools for Scientists and Engineers," and it's run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the most prestigious scientific organizations in the world.

The site, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, includes how-to tips for scientists to conduct interviews. It also houses online "webinars," ideas for coming up with public outreach opportunities, and a list of workshops to help scientists. For members of the working media, looking at these resources often has the added benefit of cluing us in to how the rest of humanity regards us (in some cases with fear and suspicion). But on the AAAS site, the authors try to anticipate scientists' struggles to explain their work to reporters and offer them practical tips. Here's a sample from the site:

"The phone rings, you answer. It's a reporter from the New York Times. She quickly explains that she's writing a story under deadline and another scientist she spoke to gave her your name. What should you do?

1. Hang up in fear.
2. Ask what the story is about and the deadline, and then arrange with the reporter a better time to talk, keeping in mind his or her deadline.
3. Say 'sure,' answer her first question, and then discuss in great detail your most recent published discovery for the next 30 minutes, interrupting the rest of the reporter's questions."

The correct answer, the site explains, is #2. This approach will give the scientist time to think through how he or she plans to explain a topic, the authors say. Other, more detailed advice for interviews is also included.

I often hear scientists talk about how difficult it is to explain the rules and language of science to lay audiences. Their frustration level was especially high during the spate of fights over evolution and intelligent design in schools a few years ago, when many scientific experts sought to describe the kinds of questions science can answer, and those that it can't. If you're a K-12 teacher or student, what tips could you give scientists on how they can explain their work in clear and lively terms?

Exclusions and Accommodations on the NAEP: Comments Welcome

2009-11-04T14:39:11Z

The board that sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress has proposed new policies that would overhaul the rules for how English-language learners and students with disabilities are tested on that exam. The goal is to bring more uniformity and clarity to those policies, which have drawn a lot of complaints over the years. Some say NAEP scores are skewed by states and cities excluding and accommodating very different portions of their test-takers.

Next Monday, Nov. 9, at 9:30 a.m., interested parties will be able to give their opinions on the issue. The National Assessment Governing Board will hold a public hearing on the topic in Washington, D.C. (An earlier hearing was held in Los Angeles.) Public testimony will be allowed, as will the submission of written comments.

China's Education Minister Removed

2009-11-02T23:16:44Z

It might not be as opaque as a Kremlin shake-up, but knowing the exact reasons for the ouster of China's education minister is something of a guessing game, with national leaders saying little publicly about the reasons for his removal. Zhou Li was relieved of his post by the standing committee of the National People's Congress and replaced by his deputy, Yuan Guiren, according to news reports.

American leaders, of course, have looked with curiosity and more than a little bit of anxiety in recent years at China's rapid economic expansion and the improvements in its schools. But China Daily, a government-run publication, says that there was widespread dissatisfaction, at least in political circles, with the rate of progress. The article describes Zhou as "unpopular." It also notes that he was the former mayor of the city of Wuhan, where the university has been roiled by a bribery scandal. Zhou, however, has never been implicated in that matter, the story says.

The New York Times notes that Zhou served at a time when demand for education at all levels, including universities, was dramatically increasing in China, and that the nation has struggled to keep up. Low literacy and lack of access to education also remain major problems. At the very least, the removal of Zhou is a reminder of the enormous pressure China faces to meet the needs of its student population and create schools and universities capable of producing more qualified workers.

Literacy Is an Obsession at an Alabama High School

2009-11-02T19:23:14Z

Literacy instruction "pops up on every corridor" at Buckhorn High School in New Market, Ala., writes my colleague Catherine Gewertz in an article published at edweek.org this week.

The article includes many examples of how teachers at that school are helping students to improve their literacy skills while also learning academic content.

Focusing on Process, Not Understanding, in Math

2009-11-02T14:47:11Z

In the wake of a recent release of uninspiring test scores and a federal study showing that states lowered their "proficiency" standards, there's been a lot of tough and in some ways surprising analysis being put forward recently about math instruction in this country. Here's a sample:

—In The Baltimore Sun, a college physics professor and parent says schools are rushing students through overly difficult material, rather than ensuring that they are taught rigorous math through "age-appropriate concepts and techniques." Joseph Ganem describes his teenage daughter's struggles with high school trigonometry material that he says is at a level appropriate for upper-level college physics students. Many students, he says, are lost when they get to college-level math because they have been fed math processes but lack a solid understanding of math. "Learning techniques without understanding them," Ganem writes, "does no good in preparing students for college, where emphasis is on understanding, not memorization and computational prowess."

—The Des Moines Register looks beyond Iowa's overall state scores to examine how students are faring, by achievement level, when compared to those students' peers in other states. The paper's editorialists are troubled by the fact that Iowa has far fewer students scoring at the "advanced" level than top-performing states, particularly Massachusetts. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are also lagging behind those from more affluent backgrounds.

—A recent examination of states' tendency to set very divergent, and in many cases very low "proficiency" standards has a lot people asking hard questions of state officials. This story in the Chicago Sun-Times about that state's proficiency standards is one example.

—And on a different note, a new survey reveals just how lost many parents are when it comes to helping their children with math and science homework. Many mothers and fathers, it turns out, find it easier to talk about the perils of illegal drug use than about math and science content. The Orlando Sentinel sums up an Intel survey on parents' math and science knowledge, or lack of it.

Some People Wear Two Hats in Common Standards Process

2009-10-30T17:05:44Z

Some of the individuals who have been selected to provide feedback on mathematics or English/language arts standards for college- and career-readiness are also part of the group of people charged with "validation" of the standards. My colleague Sean Cavanagh blogged about the fact that some people were members of more than one group in the common standards effort already this fall, but I heard more discussion about it when reporting on a story this week about the common standards push.

Four people—Arthur Applebee, Brian Gong, James Milgram, and Catherine Snow—are both in a feedback group and the validation group. Gong is actually in feedback groups for both math and English/language arts, as well as the validation group. All of these people are heavyweights in their field.

"There is some benefit to having a small number of individuals who serve on both groups," said Jodi Omear, a spokeswoman for the National Governors Association, one of the organizations overseeing the process. "This allows for some continuity in ensuring that we stay true to the goals of the initiative."

But Kyleen Beers, the president of the National Council of Teachers of English, said she believes it's a conflict of interest for individuals to provide both feedback and validation. "How can they turn around and offer accreditation on something they helped create?," she said.

Her group nominated two people for the validation group before the list of people in the feedback groups was released. She said she was surprised that one of the nominees ended up on both lists.

Gerald E. Sroufe, the director of government relations for the American Educational Research Association, said he believes it would better for the people in the feedback group and validation group to be different individuals representing different constituencies.

"Having as many different perspectives involved in the various stages of this is highly desirable," he said. "It's not that we only have a dozen people who can do this in the country."

A Guide: Making Museums and Science Centers Work for You

2009-10-30T15:46:25Z

The National Academies has just released a handbook of sorts that seeks to give educators and others practical advice on how they can use museums, science centers, and other "informal" forms of education to improve student learning.

The guide, titled "Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments," is based on the research found in a study of informal science learning, released by the National Research Council earlier this year. Museums and science centers, as well as TV shows and other efforts, can be a major resource for science teachers and parents—if they know how to use them.

The Search for 'Core' Ideas in Science

2009-10-30T13:43:00Z

Some of the country's top researchers on science education have been meeting at the National Academies in the hope of laying the groundwork for new and improved standards in that subject.

The goal is to create a conceptual framework built around "core ideas," in science. That framework could in turn inform the future development of standards as part of the multistate Common Core State Standards Initiative, an ongoing project we've been writing about a lot.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the researchers at the Academies, a congressionally-chartered entity that provides advice to the federal government, are using language that will sound very familiar to followers of the Common Core. They want to establish a framework that promotes the study of "fewer, deeper, clearer, and higher" ideas in science, which echoes the fewer-clearer-higher theme of the Common Core. The Academies organizers also believe that recent research on student cognition in science can help shape better standards, said Martin Storksdieck, the director of the the board on science education at the National Academies. For instance, researchers today take a strong interest in a concept known as "learning progressions," basically, ordering lessons in a way that reflects how students learn and builds on what they already know.

Research is showing that students "are capable of learning much more in science than we thought them capable of before," Storksdieck told me. He described a prime goal of science standards this way: "We need to teach science in a way that gives students a stronger sense of just how exciting science is."

I've written a bit about the potential for the Common Core to move on to science, after finishing language arts and reading standards. As part of its work on a science framework, the Academies staff have been working with the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Storksdieck noted. The science researchers have also stayed in touch with Achieve, which is a partner in the Common Core, he added.

Here's a useful page that offers papers and presentations from an Academies conference held this month on the creation of standards. Stay tuned.

Photo of Albert Einstein courtesy of Library of Congress.

A Forensic Examination of 'Forensics'

2009-10-29T14:25:43Z

"Dear editors," the letter reads, "Please do not continue to encourage the improper use of the word 'forensics.' The courses referred to in the article ... are courses in forensic science. Forensics is to argue in a court of law. It is also used, and has been for the past 100+ years, to refer to debate."

A reader from Colorado takes exception to my use of the word "forensics" as shorthand for the study of "forensic science" in schools. I wrote about the proliferation of classes on that topic this week.

Ask teachers and students today what's meant by forensics, and I'll bet that most of them will associate it with the study of crime scenes, criminal evidence, "CSI," and so on.

Yet this was not always so, and it should not be the case today, the reader contends. He explains that his school offers "forensics" classes that focus on the study of debate—in addition to forensic-science classes, which look at "finding evidence for argument in criminal cases." (A colleague in my office recently said a similar thing, observing that she could remember when forensics meant "debate.")

But it appears that the definition of "forensics" has evolved over time.

An edition of the 1985 American Heritage Dictionary defines "forensics" as simply "the study or practice of formal debate; argumentation." It defines "forensic," as an adjective, as 1) "pertaining to or employed in legal proceedings or argumentation: forensic medicine; 2) Of, pertaining to, or employed in the debate or argument; rhetorical." No mention of crime scenes, blood spatter, fingerprint analysis, etc.

Yet when I consult my own 2001 edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary, it defines "forensic" (from the Latin term forensis, for public) as 1) "of, characteristic of, or suitable for a law court, public debate, or formal argumentation; 2) specializing in or having to do with the application of scientific, esp. medical, knowledge to legal matters, as in the investigation of a crime." Used as a noun, it refers to "debate or formal argumentation."

So it seems the definition has shifted a bit toward the CSI-side-of-things in recent years. Even so, to the reader from Colorado, I say point taken! You may be waging a lonely, and ultimately futile battle against the weight of popular culture and journalistic imprecision, but it's a distinction worth noting. Of course, if you really want your argument carried to a larger audience, you'd lobby the creators of "CSI" to slip some relevant dialogue on this subject onto the show.

I'll pose this question to teachers and school administrators: Do you refer to the debate classes and activities in your schools as "forensics"? Or simply "debate"?

Student Debates Linked to Gains in Urban Achievement

2009-10-29T13:31:37Z

African-American students who took part in one of the most time-honored school activities—debate leagues—had higher GPAs, were more likely to graduate from high school, and were more college-ready in English and reading than those who did not take part, a new study has found.

The study looked at 2,500 students in the Chicago public schools who took part in at least one Chicago Debate League tournament over a 10-year period, out of a total pool of about 12,000 teenagers.

Not only was debate participation linked with achievement, but the more involved students were in it, the greater their gains, the research showed. While the student-debaters studied in Chicago had, on average, stronger academic records than non-debaters, they were still relatively low-performing by state standards. So while better students were drawn to debating, many of those who benefited were struggling students.

The study was conducted by Briana Mezuk of Virginia Commonwealth University, who drew from data collected by the Consortium on Chicago School Research. It was published this month in the Journal of Negro Education, which is based at Howard University in Washington. While the journal article focuses on the gains among black males, the improvements were seen among female students, too, Mezuk told me.

One of the more intriguing pieces of Mezuk's study is that she found that debate participation was linked with college-readiness gains in English and reading—but not with improvements in science and math. (This was measured by scores on the ACT test.) The result suggests that students benefited from the specific skills that debating builds, Mezuk says—English composition, understanding nonfiction texts, evaluating evidence, using arguments, and the development of vocabulary.

The Chicago Debate League is an affiliate of a larger organization known as the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, which seeks to improve big-city education through the promotion of critical thinking and an active citizenry. Urban Debate leagues operate in 18 of the nation's largest cities; participating schools typically offer a course during the school day in argumentation and debate, the organization says.

One aspect of the Chicago debate model that should not be overlooked, Mezuk explains, is that it accepts many students from weak academic backgrounds—not just the talented and motivated ones. That should be encouraging for advocates looking for strategies to help the most disadvantaged students in urban schools, she says.

Photo: Richard Nixon and JFK hash it out in one of their televised presidential debates in 1960.

Cops as Classroom Resources for Science Teachers

2009-10-28T12:53:39Z

In this week's issue, I have a story about the continued growth of forensic science courses in schools, a trend that can almost certainly be attributed partly to the "CSI effect" or the public's fixation on cops-and-crime TV shows.

When reporting on teachers taking on a relatively new topic in science, one question I'm always curious about is where educators get their classroom materials, and ideas for lessons? The teachers I interviewed for this story tapped some interesting sources, including local police departments and forensics experts, as well as research on forensic science and the TV shows themselves—sometimes to test the veracity of an idea or concept presented on the show.

One teacher whose account I was not able to include in my story was Brian Pressley, who teaches science at Brunswick High School in Maine. Pressley is also a textbook author, and he recently wrote a new book on forensics, published by Walch Education. In addition doing a lot of research and reading about forensics, Pressley gathered ideas from his school's security staff, who have law-enforcement training. The teacher said he knew that forensics would be a popular topic for a book after witnessing the reaction at several professional development conferences of science teachers.

"Teachers were standing in the doorway, trying to get information," he said of one crowded session. He thought he'd have better luck at another one later in the day, but "people were out the door at that one, too," he recalled.

About three-quarters of the members of the National Science Teachers Association who responded to a survey a few years ago said some kind of forensic science was being taught in their schools. If you're teaching forensics, how did you develop a curriculum for your class?