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 gB2CbOX05660; Mon, 2 Dec 2002 07:37:24 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 07:37:24 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <651BAA4C.3B9F3446.00169211@aol.com> 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: Dirose7@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:229] PEN Weekly Newsblast - Crosspost X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 13299 Lines: 241 Good Morning, I hope that everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend. Check out the article on accountability. ************************************************************************** PAYING FOR THE EDUCATION OF OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN When it comes to funding the education of the nation's children, two principles are at work. The first, according to William Proefriedt, is that we feel every child has the right to an equal educational opportunity. The second, almost never publicly enunciated, but effectively at work wherever funding policy is made, is that we do not wish to pay for the education of our poorer neighbors' children. Thomas Jefferson ran into this second principle a long time ago. When he proposed a modest plan of free education for white children in Virginia, he was turned down by his fellow planters, who were willing to send their own children to be tutored or to attend private schools, but were not willing to be taxed to pay for the education of their poorer neighbors' children. Two centuries later, to our credit as a nation, we have achieved free, public education in all 50 states, but it is badly marred by inequalities in expenditures. http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=12proefriedt.h22 PAYING THE PRICE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY The work of schools is becoming more complex and demanding while the organization of schools remains, for the most part, static and rigid. If you push hard enough on a rigid structure, eventually it will break and hurt the people in it. This is the perilous state of American public education. The immediate cause of this situation is a simple, powerful idea dominating policy discourse about schools: That students should be held to high, common standards for academic performance and that schools and the people who work in them should be held accountable for ensuring that students -- all students --are able to meet these standards. Accountability comes in many forms, including high-stakes student testing, district-led closure or restructuring of low-performing schools, and state takeovers of low-performing schools and districts. Unfortunately, schools and school systems were not designed to respond to the pressure for performance that standards and accountability bring, and their failure to translate this pressure into useful and fulfilling work for students and adults is dangerous to the future of public education. Accountability must be reciprocal, writes education researcher Richard Elmore. In this excerpt, Elmore says policymakers have thus far failed to hold up their end of the bargain. http://www.nsdc.org/library/results/res11-02elmore.html SCHOOLS ARE FLUNKING LUNCH Yes, parents, the worry list is now a little longer. Large-scale outbreaks of food poisoning from school meals are rising every year, sickening more than 16,000 children across the country with everything from salmonella to hepatitis A, according to a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report. While undoubtedly unpleasant, most of those illnesses ran their course in a few days. School lunches are also drawing scrutiny for posing long-term hazards to children's health. At a time when childhood obesity is skyrocketing -- there has been an almost threefold jump in the number of overweight teens since the 1970s -- some school cafeterias look little different from food courts at the local mall. Many serve burgers and pizzas rife with full-fat meats and cheeses or simply turn the prep work over to franchises like Burger King and Papa John's, which have a burgeoning side business in catering school meals. According to Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, "The school cafeteria is a toxic food environment." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101021202-393733,00.html ACTION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY & PARENT LEADERS Public Education Network has developed an indispensable guide for community leaders, parents and educators on how to use the No Child Left Behind law to advocate for improved public education. The guide cuts through education jargon and explains the law's new requirements for states, districts, and schools in clear terms. It prioritizes 10 major areas in the law where the public should concentrate its action. The guide is organized as an easy-to-use professional development tool for administrators and teachers committed to improving student achievement. The guide is now available for FREE download. Single hard copies are FREE. http://www.publiceducation.org/pubs/pubpreorder/orderform.asp LEAVE NO CHILD AND NO FAMILY BEHIND This website from the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University, directed by Dr. Joyce L. Epstein, assists schools, districts, and state departments of education in meeting and exceeding requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. NNPS provides manuals, resources, evaluation opportunities, and on-going professional development for strengthening and maintaining programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Summaries are given of four new requirements for reporting to parents and the public on their own child's test scores, changing from failing to better schools, providing supplementary services, and reporting to the public on school status, progress, and trends. http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/nochild.htm SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN EDUCATION Recent federal legislation, such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and related policy initiatives, has focused the attention of policymakers, researchers and practitioners on the nature and value of "scientific" research in education. In the November issue of Educational Researcher, eight scholars representing a broad range of approaches in educational research discuss key issues and what constitutes rigorous research in education. http://www.aera.net/pubs/er/eronline.htm INTERNET HAS POTHOLES & PITFALLS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS Schools that are serious about closing the "achievement gap" might also want to look at closing the "information gap" writes Karin Chenoweth. Information school websites provide varies so much that they serve as a metaphor for why some children are high achievers and others aren't. She doesn't believe there is necessarily a correlation between an individual school's quality and the quality of its website. However, the variability of websites illustrates the vast differences in the quality of experiences that schools offer, for students and parents, and thus the vast differences in opportunities for kids to achieve. Some schools are scrupulous about providing clear, up-to-the minute information about what is going on, with items of interest to kids, parents and the community. Others haven't posted much of anything since school started. At a time when schools struggle with providing fundamental information to families, especially in schools where many parents are not comfortable communicating in English, what do poor quality websites say about how schools value the involvement of parents and taxpayers? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15433-2002Nov20.html I'M TIRED, BUT IT’S THE WORST TIME TO REST John Deem is tired of people bashing public schools. He’s tired of the attacks on public education from leaders, parents and community members who have never had the real conviction to make our schools better. He’s tired of hypocrisy, inequity, unfulfilled promises, and school choice schemes. Instead of focusing on alternatives, he writes, let's eliminate the need for them. http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/4560587.htm |---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------| "Anne Ford Scholarship" The Anne Ford Scholarship is a $10,000 award given to a high school senior with an identified learning disability (LD) who is pursuing an undergraduate degree. Financial need will be strongly considered. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. Only U.S. citizens are eligible. The ideal candidate is a person who has faced the challenges of having a learning disability and who, through perseverance and academic endeavor, has created a life of purpose and achievement. Application deadline: December 31, 2002. http://www.ld.org/awards/afscholar.cfm "Character’s Cool Contest" The second annual Character's Cool Contest is an opportunity for U.S. secondary school students to help stop school violence by practicing ethical behavior -- and, to win prizes. The Character's Cool Contest is actually three contests in one: students can fill out an online survey to be entered in a drawing to win prizes for themselves, schools with the most participation win prizes, and individuals can enter an essay contest to win cash prizes. All U.S. middle and high school students (ages 11-18) are eligible to participate. Contest entries will be accepted January 1 through January 31, 2003. http://www.mindohfoundation.org/contest/ "Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Fellowship Program" The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Fellowship program offers two types of funding opportunities for women public school teachers: 1. Professional development grants provide up to $5,000, including attendance at the five-day Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Institute and Forum on Educational Equity held in Washington, DC in July 2003; additional professional development activities (e.g., workshops, courses, conferences); and seed money to plan a classroom-based gender equity project. 2. Project implementation grants offer up to $10,000 to support a classroom or school gender equity program. Fellowships are available to teachers who have taught for three years. The AAUW encourages women of color and teachers working with underserved students to apply. Applications are due January 10, 2003 for the 2003-2004 Fellowship year. http://www.aauw.org/3000/fdnfelgra/ertf.html "School Funding Services Grant of the Week" Each week School Funding Services, a division of New American Schools, features a new grant on their website. This week they highlight the NFIE Fine Arts Grant. http://www.schoolfundingservices.org/newsViewer.asp?docId=2546 "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. Students should be advised that FastWEB collects and sells student information (such as name, address, e-mail address, date of birth, gender, and country of citizenship) collected through their site. 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 2003 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/ QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Schools acting alone can't possibly do the job of preparing children to live in a confusing and complex world that changes seemingly at the speed of light. More than ever kids need to be in contact with real people and the real world. Textbooks and the Internet are fine as sources of information, but that is all they are. They will never provide the grounding, the inspiration and the guidance so essential to the educational process. Only adult role models and mentors can do that -- but not when the typical teacher/student ratio is one to twenty-five or one to thirty. And not when the teacher is forced into the role of pressure-driven, teach-to-the-test taskmaster." -Chris Mercogliano (teacher/author), "We Care About Each Other Fiercely" ===========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 77 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide. Regards, Diane Rosenthal NIFL Assessment Moderator Executive Director LVA-SG (203) 324-5214
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