EAA (Update)

State reform district could add schools as early as January

It also faces enrollment, board challenges

By Chastity Pratt Dawsey Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   State Superintendent Mike Flanagan announced Tuesday that more failing schools will be placed into Michigan’s reform district in 2014, possibly as early as January.

   The announcement comes as the reform district for the lowest-performing schools — the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan — faces a host of challenges: a 22% enrollment decline, a board member resignation, as well as anti-EAA campaigns led by lawmakers and educators. Also, lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill that could give the EAA powers similar to other school districts but limit the number of schools it can operate to 50.

   Earlier, Flanagan had said that by the end of this year, fewer than 10 additional schools would be placed into the EAA, but he has not given a definitive number.

   A 2009 law allows schools ranked in the lowest 5% — called priority schools — to be placed into a state reform district if they fail to achieve satisfactory results. The EAA was created in 2011 and took control over 15 priority schools in Detroit in 2012. Today, Michigan has 137 priority schools ranked in the lowest 5%.

   Flangan said that although many more schools should be placed in the EAA, “placing schools in this statewide district is an extraordinary step to take, and we want to make sure it’s done right, and every consideration is taken.”

   The state Senate could take up a bill as early as today that says a failing school would become eligible to be placed in the EAA only after being ranked in the lowest 5% of Michigan schools for three consecutive years.

   The bill also would cap the EAA at 50 schools and allow some low-performing schools to be exempt from being transferred to the EAA if the state reform officer and EAA chancellor agree that the students would do better remaining under the control of the local school board .

   State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, suggested that the Senate might consider targeting elementary grade schools to be placed in the EAA.

   “There seems to be some evolving information that the earlier you get involved in a school, the better the chance to turn that school around,” Richardville said.

   The EAA was formed through an interlocal agreement between Detroit Public Schools and Eastern Michigan University. The DPS emergency manager and the EMU Board of Regents are state-appointed. In 2012-13, its first year of operation, the EAA had to use DPS as an intermediary to borrow nearly $12 million to keep afloat financially because it does not have that borrowing authority by law.

   Enrollment in the EAA’s 12 direct-run schools dropped from about 8,300 last year to 6,515, state records show. Enrollment at three schools that the EAA authorized as charter schools dropped from about 1,200 to 1,009. cial officer for the EAA, said the EAA does not expect to borrow money this year or lay off staff. The EAA budgeted conservatively, then got more donations and federal funds than originally budgeted, he said.

   Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, said the declining enrollment in the EAA after just one year of operation is proof that parents do not want it. “EAA has proven to be a complete disaster from the moment they opened their doors. The governor seems fixated on it,” he said.

   A mass of EMU faculty and students showed up at Tuesday’s board meeting to continue to campaign against the EAA. The EAA is not doing a good job teaching students, and EMU is suffering as a result of its involvement with the reform district, they said.

   “Affiliation with the politically motivated, dysfunctionally deployed and pedagogically unsupportable EAA has tarnished our reputation in Michigan and the nation,” EMU education professor Steve Camron told the EMU board.

   EMU board members had no comment but approved appointing EMU Provost Kim Schatzel to replace College of Education Dean Jann Joseph, who stepped down from the EAA board.

WHOOSH! (Update: Getting to the Heart of the Conundrum)

Q. & A. With Freeman Hrabowski

By DAVID FIRESTONE

Published: December 10, 2013

Freeman Hrabowski has probably done more to encourage interest in science and math among minority and low-income students than any other educator. As president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Dr. Hrabowski has turned his campus into one of the top sources of African-American postgraduate degrees in science and engineering, and he has helped develop several pioneering scholarship programs to get disadvantaged students interested in the subject and to become teachers in those fields. In 2011, he led a National Academy of Sciences study on increasing minority participation in science and technology, which recommended a series of ways to improve early childhood preparation, stimulate interest among high school students, and make college more affordable. He recently discussed some of those ideas with David Firestone of The New York Times editorial board.

The vast majority of high school graduates say they’re not interested in a career involving math or science. Why is that?

We in America tend to have an attitude that says math and science are not for most people. That comes from how we have prepared teachers. We have a way of looking at kids when they don’t seem excited about the work, or when they seem bored, or it’s taking too long to solve a problem, and the look says this: I’ll help you this year, but this is not really for you. You see math teachers going in with an attitude that says just that. We send that message whether we know it or not. Mothers tell their daughters and we tell kids in a million different ways, you’re not really a math-science person.

So it’s no surprise that students often don’t do well in the course work, which means they won’t be interested in the discipline. They’re not given a strong foundation — even going back to prekindergarten, when you have to develop thinking skills and language skills. There aren’t enough opportunities for kids to develop their curiosity. Too many parents aren’t reading to their children, which really does affect math performance. As a mathematician, one of the points I make is, if you give me a young person who can read well, I can teach her to solve word problems. But they’re not getting those strong reading and math skills through middle school, and then they can’t solve word problems.

How much of this do you think has to do with the way these courses are taught?

So much of it comes down to giving students hands-on experiences in math and science. When teachers can do that, they can make those abstract concepts come to life, so they can see the connection to what happens in real life. Without that, it’s very difficult for the child to get excited about it. And the stronger the math background of the teacher, the greater the probability that she’ll be able to use those kinds of different approaches to reach a variety of students in her classroom. Because people learn in different ways.

And yet the country still isn’t training enough science and math teachers.

We need much better prepared teachers in elementary and middle school. At those levels, typically, teachers don’t have a major in math and science in our country. The president is talking about the importance of funding for teacher training, and we’ve got agencies like the National Science Foundation who are working on it, too. We need elected officials at every level working on ways to give incentives to people to want to become science and math teachers.

One of the things we’re doing is called the Sherman Scholars Program[which gives college scholarships to promising students who agree to teach science, technology, engineering and math courses in Baltimore-area public schools]. We look for students who are very good in math and science and give them the funding and support to prepare to work in challenging schools, and particularly in middle schools. That’s really unusual to have math majors who are going to work with seventh-grade kids.

You’ve also talked a lot about the importance of role models in science and engineering, particularly for minority kids and for girls, who often don’t see themselves reflected in these professions.

Well, here’s a shocking statistic: the percentage of women majoring in computer science in America has gone down by 50 percent in the last decade. Only 18 percent of computer science majors are women, at a time when we need more people in these tech areas than ever. At U.M.B.C., we have a Center for Women in Technology, and those students serve as ambassadors, building community among women.

We need to do that at every level. We need to have kids working together in groups to support each other. You’ve heard of the same idea in Posse groups, the idea of building community at not just the college level, but in high school and middle school. It’s commonplace in athletic teams, but in math and science, we tend to make people feel like they have to compete against each other, and not help each other so much. Because if there’s a curve, they don’t trust each other enough to think they’ll get enough information from the other person, so they don’t give it out.

Even our highest achieving kids who come to U.M.B.C. will say, I don’t want to work in a group, because I don’t need anybody. We don’t teach students that you do need people in problem solving, not just in math and science but across the board. We can be more effective in problem solving when we learn to collaborate, ask good questions, explain with clarity, use the technology, and build that community in an effort to become even more proficient in the work.

It turns out that even a two-year college degree helps people more than many people expected.

That’s exactly right. I don’t think most people realize that almost half the students in higher ed start in community colleges. People of a certain age don’t really know how American, in the best sense of that word, community colleges are. And I’m speaking as the president of a research university. Community colleges often have very close ties with the corporate sector, and they have worked with companies to determine the skills that students need for certain programs.

One of the advantages of Maryland is, we do have elected officials who are investing in education at the state and local levels. People are really working to encourage communication and collaboration among governmental agencies, companies, K-12 schools, community colleges and universities at all those levels. You really need that if educators are going to understand what children need to know.

So many kids, particularly in low-income areas, are never even told what engineering is. How do you expose more minority kids to the potential of those fields?

That’s why engineering companies working with universities, and two-year institutions working with school systems, need to have professionals going into communities to talk about it. Our Maryland Business Roundtable for Education is doing exactly that. Its goal is to get companies working with universities and K-12 schools to expose kids to the possibilities, by having engineers and professionals of all types, particularly those in tech areas, going into the schools, from urban to suburban to rural areas, and having professionals tell their story. There’s nothing more powerful than hearing an engineer talk about being the first in their family to go to college. Or talking about not doing well at first and then having to really get knocked down and having to get back up.

MEAP Test Replaced by SMARTER BALANCED ASSESSMENT Exam (Update)

State education officials: Stick with MEAP replacement exam for now

Contracts are in place; test is to debut in 2014-15

By Lori Higgins Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   Michigan Department of Education officials say the state should for now stick with the decision the department made several years ago to introduce the Smarter Balanced Assessment as the state’s new exam — given that contracts already are in place and the new exam is expected to debut during the 2014-15 school year.

   But the recommendation isn’t a slam dunk for the Smarter Balanced test. MDE officials said the contracts for the exam expire in 2016, and they recommend that beginning next year, the state go through the formal process of entertaining proposals for other exams.

   The recommendations are part of a report mandated by the Legislature — via a resolution lawmakers approved in late October that allowed the MDE to move forward with implementation of the often controversial Common Core State Standards, a set of standards adopted by Michigan and 44 other states that spell out what students should know in order to be college and career ready.

   MDE released the 44-page report Monday.

   The resolution required MDE to make a recommendation on an exam that would be used to test students based on the common core standards and provide data to assist in evaluating teachers.

   The requirement was meant to address some lawmakers’ misgivings about the Smarter Balanced exam, which will replace the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) exam. The state gave the last MEAP exam in the fall. The Smarter Balanced exam is expected to debut in the spring of 2015.

   Michigan is one of more than 20 states that in recent years have opted to switch to the Smarter Balanced exam, which assesses the Common Core standards.

   Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said a legislative hearing will be held on the report, likely in January. The intent, he said, is for the Legislature to make “some sort of decision” about what will become Michigan’s new test.

   “The idea was to see what was out there and to have some time to review this,” Adler said.

   But the Legislature only gave the department a little more than a month to complete the comprehensive report. MDE sent a survey to 185 vendors. Of those, 12 companies submitted replies.

   “Responding to the extensive survey in two weeks was undoubtedly a challenging task for service providers, as the questions were detailed and covered a wide range of topics,” the report said.

   The Smarter Balanced exam met most of the criteria MDE looked at, such as its alignment to the common core standards and inclusion of enough questions that assess critical thinking skills. Other tests that did well in the analysis are produced by CTB/ McGraw-Hill and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

   In the report, the MDE officials said that if the state chose an exam other than Smarter Balanced, the amount of time involved would mean the state wouldn’t have an exam ready for the 2014-15 school year, and it could impact having an exam ready for the 2015-16 school year. That would violate federal education law, they said.

   Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651or lhiggins@freepress.com  . Follow her on Twitter @LoriAHiggins.

See Full Report Here: 
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/Common_Core_Assessment_Option_Report_441322_7.pdf

The BIG M Manufacturing Conference (Update; WEBCAST: LIVE Today! 9:30AM)

If you're having problems viewing this email, click here. On a mobile device, click here. THE BIG M LIVE WEBCAST SOLVING THE SKILLED WORKFORCE CHALLENGES MANUFACTURERS FACE TODAY! Join WJR’s Paul W. Smith as he hosts a live webcasttoday: Monday, December 2 at 9:30 a.m. His guests will be from Women in Manufacturing and the show will focus on Solving Challenges Manufacturers Face with Talent Acquisition and Retention. Kim Berg, Training and Communications Manager,Detroit Diesel Jeannine Kunz, Managing Director, Workforce and Education, SME Amy Cell, Senior Vice President of Talent Enhancement, Michigan Economic Development Corporation Be part of the conversation. Tune in at bigMevent.comand click on the LIVE broadcast.

OMG! (Duh!)

Why Technology is Inevitable in the Vision of a 21st Century School?

•  
• 

Details

 

Published on 25 November 2013 

Hits: 903

WHY TECHNOLOGY IS INEVITABLE IN THE VISION OF A 21ST CENTURY SCHOOL

When we compare our current education system with the traditional one, we hardly find few changes in it. But in the near future, the situation will never be the same. 21^st Century education system will be experiencing tremendous changes in it.

Students, parents, educators, administrators, principals, policy makers, education leaders and everyone who is involved in the education system have recognized the need of switching our old education system to the new upgraded version (21^st Century Education). We live in a world which changes rapidly with time to time. In such a fast paced world, our traditional educational methods won’t be effective anymore. For example, students spend so much of their free time on mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops and tablets playing games, using different apps, listening to music, etc. If they’re confined to their seats the whole day listening to the long lectures of educators, they won’t be able to concentrate much, they’ll count time and wait for the bell to ring. This is just a basic example why our old education system fails to engage students in their learning. It’s not the failure of teachers, students or parents; it’s a failure of the education system which is still being continued even if it is out-of-date. Let’s have a look at these statistics:

Take US education as an example, which is in deep trouble:

Student test scores are dismal and dropout rates are astronomical.

In K-12 education, out of 30 developed nations around the world, US ranking is 25 for Math and 21 for Science.

1.2 Million High-Schoolers drop out every year.

What reforms US Schools made to overcome this unrest?

An infographic about how tech (especially Apple Technologies) is helping US Education to grow again. Look at the following improvements that have happened due to introducing technology into education.

Through multimedia learning, including digital platforms: Student interest and retention increases by 25%.

In 2001, Maine passed an initiative to provide free laptops to every 7th grader in the state. By the year 2010, interestingly there is a significant increase in 8th Graders passing Math exams from 50% to 91%.

An Inner-City high school in Euclid, Ohio gave one classroom 24 iPads and tested the students: Results showed are 6% improvement in reading and 8% improvement in writing.

It is now a known fact that technology can enhance the learning when used effectively. In fact, you’re reading this guide means you’re using a technological device to acquire knowledge. Using technology inclassroom and teaching with technology in classroom are two different statements. There is nothingpowerful than the technology in the hands of an efficient teacher who is able to adopt latest practices of teaching. There is no doubt that technology is essential but I’d like to focus on its importance in the vision of 21^stcentury education. Let’s learn about the vision and the role of technology in 21^st Century Education.

21^st Century Education:

The main aim of 21^st Century Schools is to help students become independent learners.

21^st Century Education is an approach of training students for their future professions right from their early schooling days. As we know, many of the top jobs in 2012 such as Social media strategist, User experience specialist, Telework manager, Elder care coordinator, Sustainability manager, etc., hadn’t existed in 2002. Similarly, many of the jobs students will have in the near future don’t even exist yet. They’re about to use technologies that haven’t been invented yet.  

21^st Century Education has realized its responsibility to develop students with not just good grades but also with good technical, collaborative, innovative, creative, leadership, problem solving, etc., skills to become  good employers, entrepreneurs, leaders, innovators, etc., in nearby future. 

It’s not about teaching something to help them learn, it’s about developing them to utilize what they’ve learnt in schooling throughout the life.

In addition to the above mentioned goals, 21^st Century Schools also include a creative curriculum to develop students to have a set of 21^st Century Skills. Let’s learn about how technology enables educators to help students have 21^stcentury skills.

21^st Century Skills and the Role of Technology:

Creativity, Cultural Awareness, Problem solving, Innovation, Civic engagement, Communication, Productivity, Collaboration, Accountability, Exploration, Initiative, Responsibility, Leadership, Critical thinking, etc.,are the set of 21^stcentury skills that our new education system helps students to acquire.

Creativity:

Neuroscience research has proved that all the children are born with innate creative powers and as they grow up some of them keep their creativity active while others unconsciously keep it dormant. Technology enables educators to help students improve their creativity. Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., help students to think creatively to write artistic expressions. They also improve students’ social as well as communication skills.

There are thousands of apps and games available on web that improve student creativity. For example,Spy tool is an awesome app to improve creativity in kids. It has several existing functioning tools like disguise kit, identification kit, fingerprint scanner, voice changer, and night vision goggles.

Communication & Collaboration:

Collaboration in education is an approach that involves a group of students learning together or working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. Technology helps students and educators collaborate globally. It provides them with platforms where they can collaborate from anywhere and anytime, also beyond the classroom. Social Networks, Blogs, Wikis, etc., are great tools to collaborate with students, parents and educators. In addition to the above tools, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, etc., offer video conferencing to make collaborations much effective.

Critical thinking & Problem Solving:

Critical thinking is defined as the thinking employed to form meaningful, unbiased decisions or judgments based on the use of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inferences, and explanations of information as it relates to the evidence applied to a specific discipline. Critical thinking differs from student to student as they have different interpretations. Problem solving is the ability to find solutions to problems, overcome challenges, complete difficult tasks through techniques, etc. Both critical thinking and problem solving are similar as their design is to approach and tackle different challenges. Technology makes it easy for educators to improve these kinds of skills in students.

For example, Mystery Skype is an educational game, invented by teachers and played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. It's suitable for all age groups and can be used to teach subjects like Geography, History, Languages, Mathematics and Science. There is no doubt that this kind of tool increases critical thinking, problem solving and collaborative skills.

Teaching students how to code is a great way to inculcate 21^st century skills in them.

In addition to the above mentioned tools, there are numerous technological approaches to enhance every skill. Every tech tool has its own importance in developing all the 21^st century skills.  We hope this information helped you to know the importance of technology in the vision of 21^stcentury education. I have few questions for you:

What according to you is “A 21^st Century School”?

Do you agree that technology is essential in the vision of “21^st Century Education”? Please feel free to comment your answer with explanation.

The comment box awaits you.

Comments: http://edtechreview.in/news/797-why-technology-is-inevitable-in-the-vision-of-a-21st-century-school?goback=%2Egde_3275408_member_5811829550916603906#%21

Michigan Schools Rating System Legislation Ignore's Deepened Understanding & Relevance

Local commentary

Rating system won’t make schools better or solve their problems

By Robert D. Livernois and Michael F. Rice

   Recently, the Michigan Department of Education unveiled a new color-coded scorecard rating system for schools. Like most big and complicated projects, its first moment in the sun was met with some confusion and criticism. Efforts to improve it began immediately and are ongoing.

   But rather than work with MDE and schools to improve the scorecards, some Lansing legislators have chosen to add to the confusion by proposing yet another new rating system. This new system, would have a tortured rating process with separate ratings systems for schools serving grades K-8 and 9-12, with each having a clumsy 800-point scale, a bell curve and letter grades.

   The basic premise of any rating system for schools must be rooted in what parents and community members need to be able to gauge school performance and determine the experiences their children are, or will be, having at a school.

   Parents are our partners in our schools. We speak with parents constantly regarding student achievement, plans to improve, as well as our challenges and successes.

   Neither of us has heard a parent ask for a complicated 800-point scale, bell curves or a success formula centered around a single high-stakes test. In fact, many want less testing.

   Parents across our respective regions want to know that their children are in safe and nurturing environments where they are learning daily. They want to know relevant things about student success in pre-K-12 and postsecondary education.

   They want to know that our districts are financially responsible and have reasonable student-teacher ratios.

   They want experienced and well-qualified teachers to provide student opportunities in pre-kindergarten, math, science, social studies, language arts, the fine and performing arts, athletics and technology.

   Parents want to make sure their sons and daughters are getting a strong education with cultural and global awareness and a readiness to pursue higher education and 21st-Century jobs.

   All of this is routinely reflected in public polling data, which consistently demonstrates that parents largely believe that their children’s schools are doing a good job, despite school funding cuts and constant micromanagement by some legislators.

   If our elected officials really want to do something to improve student achievement, they should stop re-creating rating systems every few months and start addressing the devastating effects of poverty, hunger, homelessness and underfunding on schoolchildren and schools in every corner of the state.

   Robert D. Livernois is president of the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education and superintendent of Warren Consolidated Schools. Michael F. Rice is president of Middle Cities Education Association and superintendent of Kalamazoo Public Schools.

Robert D. Livernois

Michael

   F. Rice

Education Achievement Authority (Update)

Educators urge EMU: Cut ties with state district; teaching concerns cited

By David Jesse Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   Teachers unions and faculty members are applying pressure on Eastern Michigan University, hoping to force it from its role in the statewide Educational Achievement Authority school district, created to take over low-performing schools in the state.

   Several Washtenaw County teachers unions have asked members to stop accepting student teachers from EMU, and the faculty of EMU’s College of Education has sent a letter to the university’s Board of Regents asking it to drop out of the partnership with Detroit Public Schools and State of Michigan.

   On Wednesday, EMU’s full faculty Senate approved a resolution calling for EMU to withdraw from the EAA.

   The faculty and unions are upset with how the EAA staffs its schools. They say that when the EAA takes over, every teacher is fired and then has to reapply.

   The faculty also is upset that EAA schools are run by an appointed board and taken away from local school boards, and, they say, the reform district’s teaching methods are flawed. That all adds up, the EMU faculty says, to harming the university’s reputation.

   “These negative impacts on our reputation, our local relationships, our students and programs, the clear effect on enrollments and thus revenue to the university are a repudiation of EMU’s legacy as a champion of public education and a leader in the preparation of educational professionals,” the letter to the EMU board says. “We implore you to remedy this situation as quickly as possible by unanimously voting to withdraw from the contract creating the EAA.”

   EMU has no plans to drop out, said Leigh Greden, vice president of government and community relations.

   Under the agreement, EMU could withdraw now only if it found another university to take its place. After Dec. 30, 2014, it can withdraw on the next June 30th, as long as it has given at least 180 days notice.

   An EAA spokesman said the initiative is working well.

   How EAA benefits

   The EAA was formed in July 2011. It took control of 15 low-performing Detroit public schools, with the intent to eventually become a statewide district for the state’s lowest performing schools.

   EMU was given two seats on the 11-member board of directors, but College of Education faculty members said they’ve been frozen out since the EAA began, learning only of EMU’s participation when the new school district was announced.

   “We really have nothing to do with the EAA,” said Steve Camron, a special-education professor. “They don’t want anything to do with EMU’s faculty.

   “The EAA went out to a private firm to evaluate special education. They could have gotten that for free from EMU.”

   Camron said EMU professors have had EAA teachers and principals in classes and are trying to help informally. He said the EAA is trying to use EMU’s reputation, but not its resources.

   EAA spokesman Terry Abbott declined to comment on the EMU faculty’s protest but said the district’s “student-centered approach is working.”

   “In its first year of operation, the Education Achievement Authority saw very significant academic improvement throughout its schools,” Abbott said in an e-mail to the Free Press. “Students who had been in failing schools are making strong improvements. That’s what the EAA was created to do, and the effort thus far has been a substantial success.”

   The EAA has operated schools for only one year, so it is too early for MEAP scores to measure its impact. EAA officials measured student progress internally with a test called the Performance Series, a Web-based assessment that is not aligned with the MEAP test but allows teachers to measure student growth.

   Firings and training

   Also trying to push EMU out of the EAA is the Washtenaw County Education Association, which is made up of teachers unions from the Chelsea, Dexter, Lincoln, Manchester, Saline, Whitmore Lake and Ypsilanti school districts.

   The group has advised its teacher members not to take student teachers from EMU this year.

   “EMU is the only public university in partnership with the EAA,” said Tim Heim, a Saline teacher and association president. “The EAA feels school improvement means: ‘Fire all the teachers.’ EMU’s involvement gives us pause.”

   In a letter to teachers this year, Heim said that by firing teachers, EMU and the EAA are saying those teachers are poor teachers, but are then asking some of the same teachers to train EMU students.

   The number of student teachers from EMU who haven’t been able to get into Washtenaw County schools is not known. EMU said the boycott move could hurt its students.

   “This concerns us deeply, as the welfare and career path of our students is our primary concern,” Greden said. “We agree with many in our state and community who do not think it is appropriate for an organization to take actions that could potentially affect the careers of our high-quality teaching students, and the education of young people in our state.”

   Greden said a majority of EMU’s teaching students are from Michigan, and most plan to stay and teach in Michigan.Having a roadblock in their career development, he said, could lead them to look for opportunities outside Michigan.

   Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851or djesse@freepress.com  .

   Free Press education writer Chastity Pratt Dawsey contributed to this report.