Return-Path: <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g6MLecX14350; Mon, 22 Jul 2002 17:40:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 17:40:38 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <NGBBJDHKPMGKJEBFMDKOKEIOCDAA.dbaycich@literacy.kent.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Dianna Baycich" <dbaycich@archon.educ.kent.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:160] FW: PEN Weekly NewsBlast for July 19, 2002 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 15640 Lines: 299 -----Original Message----- From: Public Education Network [mailto:PEN@PublicEducation.org] Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 1:12 AM To: PEN Weekly NewsBlast Subject: PEN Weekly NewsBlast for July 19, 2002 Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast "America’s Favorite Free Newsletter on Improving Public Education" *************************************************************************** AN "F" FOR THE FOUNDATIONS The Pittsburgh public school system was thrown into shock when three foundations, the Heinz Endowments, the Grable Foundation and the Pittsburgh Foundation suspended their payments for programs in the Pittsburgh schools, citing a lack of fiscal controls and sound leadership. All together, the foundations are holding back more than $3 million targeted for literacy, math and science instruction, afterschool youth development, and clubs and recreation. David Bergholz, a respected education reform activist and grantmaker, writes that this act of philanthropic condemnation and withdrawal is a great disservice to the parents and students of the system, let alone the many administrators and teachers who work every day toward operating and improving the schools. Bergholz suggests the withdrawal of foundation support in Pittsburgh seriously undermines the philanthropic community's capacity to be helpful if and when the community actively engages in meaningful school reform. It also sends a message to local and national philanthropic peers that there is cause to disinvest in this system at a moment when it is most in need of outside support. http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/comm/20020714edberg14p2.asp TELL US WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE PEN WEEKLY NEWSBLAST Thank you for helping improve the content and readability of the PEN Weekly NewsBlast. The NewsBlast has grown from 500 to more than 43,000 subscribers in two short years. As our subscribership grows, we want to make sure we are meeting your information needs. Here is your chance to tell us what you really like and what needs additional attention. Please click the link below to answer ten short survey questions. Thank you for your time and participation. http://www.publiceducation.org/survey/survey.asp LET'S NOT GET COLD FEET ON IMPROVING OUR SCHOOLS Reinventing and reforming schools is tough work for everyone involved: teachers, students, parents, and citizens. At a time when standardized tests and the certificate of mastery are being accused of being too difficult and stressful, the authors of this provocative editorial implore the citizens of Washington state to stay the course and not revert to the education system's old ways. According to the authors, two respected business leaders and education activists, there simply aren't quality opportunities in our information-based economy for people who lack basic skills. Because the public understands this, they will continue to insist on higher standards in schools. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134491119_wasl11.htm l FOUNDATION INCREASES NUMBER OF GRANTS FOR INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS With the help of local businesses, the Framingham Education Foundation, in Massachusetts, hopes to expand the number of grants it gives to teachers to run innovative classroom programs. The foundation was born shortly after the passage of a state law, which limits the amount communities can raise taxes to 2.5 percent, said Sherri Sigel, development director for the foundation. "Framingham, like other towns, was looking for an alternative way to support education," Sigel said. The foundation has handed out about $160,000 to teachers in the Framingham public schools to encourage new and inventive ways of teaching. "The foundation doesn't fund things in the regular curriculum," Sigel said. "We fund professional development, innovative ways to enhance teaching, and pilot programs that could become part of the curriculum." Most of the money is doled out through the mini-grant program, where teachers are awarded up to $1,000 for their projects. The foundation will continue to hand out mini-grants, but the group has larger aspirations. "We hope to fund the needs of students in an entire school building instead of an entire classroom," Sigel said. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/fram_foundation0716200 2.htm PLAYING THE NUMBERS GAME WITH DROPOUT RATES L.A. Weekly examines how fraudulent dropout rates are being reported at some schools in California. According to the authors, the chicanery around dropout rates begins with the state of California itself, which does not conform to widely accepted standards for counting dropouts honestly and accurately. The state gives schools up to a year and a half to locate missing students and then offers any number of loopholes to avoid counting them as dropouts. A federal study used a mathematical model to estimate that California undercounted dropouts in one recent year by more than 70 percent. Ironically, regular student absences are unintentionally solving the problem of chronic classroom overcrowding. http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/35/features-dockstader.php TESTING FOR APTITUDE, NOT SPEED Changes in educational policy invariably evoke strong and contrary reactions. The College Board's recent announcement that it will no longer tell colleges and universities which students have been given extra time to complete the SAT is no exception. Some see this decision, which came as a result of a legal settlement with a student who had a physical disability, as fair and overdue. Others see it as unfairly handicapping those students who do not request or receive such accommodations and say it will deprive admissions officers of pertinent information. According to acclaimed author and educator Howard Gardner, the College Board's decision is right. In this intriguing article, he questions whether there is any rationale for timing such tests at all. "Few tasks in life -- and very few tasks in scholarship -- actually depend on being able to read passages or solve math problems rapidly… Indeed, by eliminating the timed component, the College Board would signal that background knowledge, seriousness of purpose and effort -- not speed and glibness -- are the essentials of good scholarship. What matters is not what you have at the starting point, but whether and how well you finish." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/18/opinion/18GARD.html NEW STATEMENT ON HIGH STAKES TESTING No single test should ever be the sole determinant of a young adolescent's academic future, whether it be promotion to the next grade, special placement, or transition from the middle grades to high school. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform encourages diverse approaches to curriculum and instruction and supports the use of multiple measures to make decisions about a student’s progress, instead of a single test. These may include portfolios of student work, exhibitions, performances, demonstrations, and tests that measure how well students achieve state standards. With new demands on schools to improve student performance and increase accountability, virtually every state in the nation has created and administered statewide tests. But according to Dan French, a member of the policy committee that helped draft the statement, "Such tests are an important component of a comprehensive accountability system, but they should not be used to sort students, deny them access to rigorous courses, or hold them back a grade." Instead, the statement argues that tests, like quality schools, should be academically rigorous, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable. http://www.mgforum.org/highstakes/page1.htm THE CONTINUING STORY OF TECHNOLOGY & ASSESSMENT Technology is finding a key place in education. This is occurring not only because technology skill has become a workplace requirement. It is also happening because technology provides information resources central to the pursuit of knowledge and because the medium allows for the delivery of instruction to individuals who couldn't otherwise obtain it. As technology becomes more central to schooling, assessing students in a medium different from the one in which they typically learn will become increasingly untenable. Education leaders in several states and numerous school districts are acting on that implication, implementing technology-based tests for low and high stakes decisions in elementary and secondary schools and across all key content areas. These groundbreaking efforts will undoubtedly encounter significant difficulties that may include cost, measurement, technological dependability, and security issues. But most importantly, state efforts will need to go beyond the initial achievement of computerizing traditional multiple-choice tests to create assessments that facilitate learning and instruction in ways that paper measures cannot. http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/v1n1.shtml THE ROOTS OF SCHOOL VANDALISM Several Ohio schools have been hit hard by vandalism, leaving school boards and district leaders grappling with staggering repair and replacement costs as well as soaring insurance premiums. Three Ohio school districts recently suffered arson blazes that cost nearly $1 million each. And Ohio is not alone: School vandalism is taking its toll in other states as well. A federal government study estimates that 234 out of every 100,000 students are involved in some degree of vandalism. Incidents of vandalism are widespread in both urban and rural schools, although rates tend to be higher in crime-ridden neighborhoods marked by poverty. Other factors -- including those within a school's sphere of influence -- also contribute to vandalism. Schools that are large and impersonal and those where teachers and administrators are hostile and authoritarian toward students are more likely to be vandalized. Installing surveillance cameras and lighting dim corridors can go a long way toward thwarting major and minor vandalism. But schools shouldn't stop there. School officials have an obligation to assess -- and correct -- disorder in their schools and classrooms. Very likely, the most important step you can take to control vandalism is making certain your school's house is in order. http://www.asbj.com/current/research.html |---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------| "3Com Urban Challenge" The Urban Challenge program grants $100,000 worth of 3Com technology to U.S. cities to incorporate new uses for information technology into the fabric of their communities. Schools can use the grant to tailor a networking solution that meets their community's needs. Application deadline: grants are awarded on a rolling basis with the next application due on November 1, 2002. http://www.3com.com/solutions/en_US/scenario.jsp?solutiontype=1000004&groupi d=11060&solutionid=5960 "Schools for a New Millennium" The National Endowment for the Humanities offers K-12 educators an opportunity to improve the teaching of a humanities subject throughout the entire school. Funded projects will engage teachers, administrators, students, scholars, and others in two years of intensive collaborative work. The project will emphasize professional and curricular development and the use of new technology. Any U.S. nonprofit, IRS tax-exempt organization is eligible to apply. State and local governments are also eligible. Grants provide up to $100,000 for a project lasting up to two years. Application deadline: October 2, 2002 http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/milschools.html "FastWEB" FastWEB is the largest online scholarship search available, with 600,000 scholarships representing over one billion in scholarship dollars. It provides students with accurate, regularly updated information on scholarships, grants, and fellowships suited to their goals and qualifications, all at no cost to the student. http://www.fastweb.com/ "Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)" More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE website. http://www.ed.gov/free/ "Fundsnet Online Services" A comprehensive website dedicated to providing nonprofit organizations, colleges, and Universities with information on financial resources available on the Internet. http://www.fundsnetservices.com/ "Department of Education Forecast of Funding" This document lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards for FY 2002 and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the transmittal of applications under these programs. The lists are in the form of charts -- organized according to the Department's principal program offices -- and include programs and competitions the Department has previously announced, as well as those it plans to announce at a later date. Note: This document is advisory only and is not an official application notice of the Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/grants/forecast.html "eSchool News School Funding Center" Information on up-to-the-minute grant programs, funding sources, and technology funding. http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/funding/ "Philanthropy News Digest-K-12 Funding Opportunities" K-12 Funding opportunities with links to grantseeking for teachers, learning technology, and more. http://fdncenter.org/funders/ "School Grants" A collection of resources and tips to help K-12 educators apply for and obtain special grants for a variety of projects. http://www.schoolgrants.org QUOTE OF THE WEEK "The children of foreigners, found in great numbers in our populous cities and towns, and in the vicinity of our public works, are too often deprived of the advantages of our system of public education, in consequence of prejudices arising from the difference of language or religion. It ought never to be forgotten that the public welfare is as deeply concerned in their education as in that of our own children." -William H. Seward (politician) ===========PEN NewsBlast========== The PEN Weekly NewsBlast is a free e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school fundraising resources. The PEN NewsBlast is the property of the Public Education Network, a national association of 70 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide. There are currently 44,125 subscribers to the PEN Weekly NewsBlast. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast change or expire on a daily or weekly basis. Some links may also require local website registration. To view past issues of the PEN Weekly NewsBlast, visit: http://www.publiceducation.org/news/signup.htm To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit: http://www.publiceducation.org/news/signup.htm If you would like an article or news about your local education fund, public school, or school reform organization featured a future issue of PEN Weekly NewsBlast, send a note to HSchaffer@PublicEducation.org Andrew Smith is a regular contributor to the PEN Weekly NewsBlast. ---------- Howie Schaffer Managing Editor Public Education Network 601 Thirteenth Street, NW #900N Washington, DC 20005 202-628-7460 202-628-1893 fax www.PublicEducation.org HSchaffer@PublicEducation.org --- You are currently subscribed to newsblast as: dbaycich@literacy.kent.edu For subscription changes please visit: http://www.PublicEducation.org/news/signup.htm
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