TechEd News

Failing Math

THE SECOND DERIVATIVE: Student Math Proficiency in States and Districts Fails to Measure up to Global Benchmark

Alliance for Excellence, Straight A’s, Volume 9, #13

 

According to a recent report from the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the math performance of American students in almost every state and city is ranked “average” at best and pales in comparison to student performance in several Asian countries including Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and Japan. In grade eight, Massachusetts is the only state achieving academic proficiency and fully preparing its students to compete with students from top nations.

“These Asian nations consistently perform at the B+, B, and B- levels,” said report author and AIR vice president and chief scientist Gary W. Phillips. “Their students are learning mathematics not just at a higher level than students in the United States, but at a level that is a quantum leap higher.”

 

The Second Derivative: International Benchmarks in Mathematics for U.S. States and School Districts pulls from data provided in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and uses it to create a new international letter-grade index, which assumes a grade of B as the benchmark.

 

The math proficiency average for U.S. students is C+ in grade four and C at grade eight, indicating a general tendency for students to drop in performance as they advance through middle school.

 

Unfortunately, this decrease in mathematical competency was observed at both the state and district levels. For example, four major districts (Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and Cleveland) fell from C to D levels from grade four to grade eight. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas, were the only two cities that performed at the average score of the participating Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

 

At the state level in eighth-grade math, only Massachusetts’ students achieved a letter grade of B. And five states (Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont) fell from B to C level from grade four to grade eight.

 

Download the report: http://www.air.org/news/documents/AIRInternationalBenchmarks2009.pdf

National Standards Moving Ahead

STANDARDS MOVEMENT GAINING STEAM: Duncan Announces Plan to Commit Up to $350 Million for Assessments Linked to Common Standards

Alliance for Excellence, Straight A’s, Volume 9, #13

 

Earlier this month, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced that forty-six states and the District of Columbia have signed on to a joint effort to develop a common core of state standards in English language arts and mathematics for grades K–12. The standards will be “research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations, and include rigorous content and skills,” according to a press release from CCSSO.

 

NGA and CCSSO will create an expert validation committee to undertake an independent review of the common core state standards, as well as grade-by-grade standards that emerge from this effort. The organizations were careful to point out that the validation committee will consist of nationally and internationally recognized education experts who are neutral to—and independent of—the process. They expect the college- and career-ready standards to be completed in July while the grade-by-grade standards work should come in December.

 

…[Secretary Arne] Duncan said that the standards that emerge from the state-led process must be “rigorous” and limited to the “essential knowledge and skills” that students need. He added that current standards are too broad and cover thirty-five to forty topics per subject in each grade compared to fifteen or twenty in many high-performing countries. “Teachers scramble to cover everything…and not enough of what’s really important. They can’t dig deeper on a challenging subject that excites their students. And students can’t master material when they are racing through it.”

 

Read more: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/06/06142009.html

Cellphone Debate

Ban or Embrace Cellphones?

By Katie Ash and Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Week, Digital Education Series

 

The agenda for the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington this week is chock full of sessions about how to use mobile computing to improve learning, especially through the use of cellphones. And mobile learrning advocates such as Elliot Soloway from the University of Michigan are here to argue passionately for the increased use of cellphones and other mobile devices in K-12 schools.

 

Observing the growing number of attendees hanging out in the hallways and at lunch tables at the Washington Convention Center, most of whom are sporting some of the latest and greatest cellphones, it's likely that Soloway and other advocates are going to find a very receptive audience.

 

But not everyone in the education world is jumping on the mobile computing bandwagon, especially regarding cellphones.

 

This recent op/ed piece in USA Today, for instance, is causing quite a stir among the educators and technology experts I follow on Twitter.

 

The piece, by Patrick Welsh, a veteran high school teacher in Alexandria, Va., who often writes about his classroom experiences and observations, comes down hard on the side of banning cellphones in schools.

 

Welsh, who has had some provocative opinions over the years on the problems plaguing the public schools, is no slouch. He's been in the classroom for three decades or more, working with a very diverse student population, and regularly chronicling the highs and lows he's observed. But he has also been somewhat of a tech skeptic. In this piece from last year he described the "technology overkill" that was taking over his school.

 

In the USA Today piece, he laments the problems with cellphones:

And the problem is getting worse, as students become more adept at disguising their texting. ...For the most part, all this subterfuge might seem like innocent adolescent behavior, but evidence suggests that texting is undermining students' ability to focus and to learn—and creating anxiety to boot.

 

The quick-hit communication style students master for texting, he adds, has diminished their ability to hone other important skills:

 

One of the great ironies of the high-tech revolution is that devices meant to facilitate communication are actually helping to destroy it. For my students, rethinking what they wrote and hammering out second or third drafts is beyond all but a handful. ...Math and science teachers at my school see the same, with kids wanting the quick answers instead of going through the struggle that will help them understand what is behind the mathematical or scientific principles involved.

 

Ultimately, Welsh recommends what might be deemed by many teens and parents alike as heretical: Parents should disable texting features on their children's cellphones, and schools should crack down on their use altogether.

 

What do you think schools should do? Ban or embrace cellphones?

Microsoft's New Tools

Microsoft Unveils New Research Tools at Its Annual TechFair

Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus

 

A number of new technologies in computer graphics, online searching, and workplace collaboration — many of which may soon become available to colleges and universities — were on display Wednesday at the Microsoft Research TechFair 2009, in Washington D.C.

 

Many of the 13 projects on exhibit — all of which are under development in Microsoft’s six worldwide labs — involved workplace communication and research. Project designers say the tools could help make academic collaboration, either between students and professors or among universities, much easier.

 

“Our goal really is, how can we further research, how can we further education, how can we really change the way people think about the work that they do?,” said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research.

 

Read about the projects: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/techfair2009/default.aspx

Focusing on Math & Science

New report urges widespread reform of math and science education
By Laura Devaney, eSchoolNews

 

Urging the nation to "do school differently," a new report recommends a set of concrete actions for federal, state, and local education leaders to take to transform math and science instruction and bring the United States back to the forefront of global competition.

 

"The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy," released by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education, advocates for several changes among American schools and colleges.

 

Specifically, the report calls for common standards in math and science that are fewer, clearer, more rigorous, and accompanied by closely aligned assessments; improving teacher preparation and recruitment so that every child has an effective teacher for math and science, regardless of his or her socio-economic status; redesigning school systems so they deliver math and science instruction more effectively; and initiating a public-awareness campaign to boost understanding of the link between effective math and science instruction and the current job market.

 

The U.S. needs better math and science education for all students and should place math and science at the center of educational innovation, improvement, and accountability, the report says.

 

Read the report summary: http://www.opportunityequation.org/report/executive-summary/)

Preparing for the Future

21st-century Skills Movement Grows 
By Laura Devaney, eSchoolNews

 

Illinois, Louisiana, and Nevada have become the latest states to join the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), a national effort to integrate 21st-century skills into teaching and learning to prepare students for a global, information-based economy.

 

P21 made the announcement at the end of a recent Cyber Summit, which ran online June 1-9. The summit featured a series of nine webinars that gave policy makers and educators a chance to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from their colleagues who have implemented 21st-century skills programs in their own states and school systems.

 

The addition of three new states to the 21st-century skills movement brings the number of participating states to 13. (The others are Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.) Participants agree to update their standards and assessments to incorporate 21st-century skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and financial literacy.

 

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59338

46 Say, "Let's TRY"

46 States Agree to Common Academic Standards Effort

By Michele McNeil, Education Week

 

Forty-six states—representing 80 percent of the nation’s K-12 student population—have formally agreed to join forces to create common academic standards in math and English language arts through an effort led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

 

The four states not on board, as of last week, were Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas.

 

“This is a giant step,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who has been pushing states to adopt common, rigorous standards. “It would have been unimaginable, this kind of thing, just a year or two ago.”

 

In each of the 46 states, both the governor and the chief education officer signed a memorandum of agreement committing to the process and development of voluntary, common standards—the tangible result of a daylong meeting in Chicago in April. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have also agreed to take part.

 

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/01/33standards.h28.html?tkn=OLSFMiMEtX62W3pmvC32l5ixVKicSASMnV9l

High Schools Failing to Produce

National High School Graduation Rate Falls Below 70%

Diplomas Count 2009 Finds Rate Fell Nearly 1.5 Percentage Points

From 1996 to 2005, the national high school graduation rate increased from 66.4 percent in 1996 to 70.6. However, from 2005 to 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, the rate fell by 1.4 percentage points. The decrease for the Class of 2006 marks the first significant annual decline in more than a decade, according to an analysis of high school completion by the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center, which recently published its findings in Diplomas Count 2009.

 

“As a nation, we have a long way to go in order to reconcile the goal of raising college attendance and completion rates with troubling data on the proportion of U.S. students who graduate from high schools in the traditional four-year time span,” said EPE Research Center Director Christopher B. Swanson. “The rates are generally not as high as we would like them to be, and the pace of improvement needs to be much faster.”

 

Diplomas Count 2009, data on state and school district graduation rates, and EdWeek Maps, which allows users to zoom in on states and access detailed data for every school district and high school in the nation, are available at http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2009/06/11/index.html

NCLB Works!

NCLB Found to Raise Scores Across Spectrum

By Sean Cavanagh, Education Week 

 

Since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, critics have questioned whether the law’s mandate to bring students to "proficiency" has resulted in schools ignoring the needs of the nation’s highest- and lowest-achieving students.

 

A new study, released today, suggests those fears have not become reality.

 

The 50-state analysis found that test scores for both "advanced" and "basic" students rose in nearly three-quarters of assessments studied across states and grade levels, a level of progress only slightly lower than that of students reaching proficiency.

 

…While the progress of high and low achievers could be stagnating in individual instances or schools, the study indicates that on average, those students are advancing, said Mr. Jennings, of the center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

 

Download the study:

 

http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=280

Moving toward a single set of standards

46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards

By Maria Glod Washington Post Staff Writer

 

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools.

 

The push for common reading and math standards marks a turning point in a movement to judge U.S. children using one yardstick that reflects expectations set for students in countries around the world at a time of global competition. Today, each state decides what to teach in third-grade reading, fifth-grade math and every other class. Critics think some set a bar so that students can pass tests but, ultimately, are ill-prepared.

 

Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states, including Maryland and Virginia, are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. The benchmarks would be "internationally competitive."

 

Once the organizers of the effort agree to a proposal, each state would decide individually whether to adopt it.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102339.html