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 h4T4PJC04226; Thu, 29 May 2003 00:25:19 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 00:25:19 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <53057AA9.551C79DF.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:250] PEN Weekly 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: 14363 Lines: 261 Dear Assessment List Participants: A few important articles. What do you think? Would enjoy hearing from everyone again. Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast "Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit." ******************************************************** STATES CUT TEST STANDARDS TO AVOID SANCTIONS Fearing that thousands of students would fail the new statewide achievement test and be held back a grade, and that hundreds of schools could face penalties under the federal No Child Left Behind law, the Texas State Board of Education voted to reduce the number of questions that students must answer correctly to pass it, to 20 out of 36, from 24, for third-grade reading. Texas has not been alone in lowering its testing standards in recent months. Educators in other states have been making similar decisions as they seek to avoid the penalties that the federal law imposes on schools whose students fare poorly on standardized tests. Since President Bush signed the law in January 2002, all 50 states have presented plans for compliance. But some experts say there is only a veneer of acquiescence. Quietly, they say, states are doing their best to avoid costly sanctions. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/education/22EDUC.html DISCARDED CHILDREN? ARE SCHOOLS FAILING DISABLED CHILDREN? How does a boy, once a member of gifted programs, descend through a series of disciplinary actions and suspensions, ultimately to be barred from school entirely by the age of 14? His parents say it was because of his emerging learning disability, and rather than deal with his problems, they say his school system, like many school systems across the country, simply tossed him aside. It's a case that education experts and advocates for children with disabilities say is emblematic of a disturbing trend that is becoming endemic across the country as schools grapple with funding cuts, understaffing and increased pressure from the federal No Child Left Behind program to raise overall performance levels. Instead of having him evaluated to try to find the reason for his problems -- as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, as it's called -- his family says school officials have tried to ban him from school altogether. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Living/special_ed030512.html CONGRESS VOTES NOT TO FORCE MEDICATION ON CHILDREN The House voted Wednesday to prohibit schools from making children with behavioral problems take medication in order to attend class. Under the bill, passed 425-1, states receiving federal education money must make sure schools do not coerce parents into medicating their children. "School personnel may have good intentions, but parents should never be required to decide between their child's education and keeping them off potentially harmful drugs," said Rep. Max Burns, R-Ga., who sponsored the legislation. In recent decades, more children have been diagnosed with attention deficit or hyperactivity disorders and prescribed drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., a former schoolteacher, said he sympathizes with the need for orderly classrooms but said, "School personnel should never presume to know the medication needs of a child." http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/wire/030522d.asp COMBAT TRUANCY BY MAKING SCHOOL WORTH ATTENDING Although individual and family troubles contribute to truancy, writes Anne Wheelock, the source of attendance problems goes beyond students' psyches. School policies matter, too. Depending on how schools respond to student problems, students with similar profiles may either stay motivated to attend school or become convinced that "school is not for me." Sometimes the things that erode student attendance have to do with the climate unique to a particular school. Wheelock outlines strategies for reducing truancy: reverse automatic fail policies, provide extra academic help, increase school-community partnerships offering individual and group services that strengthen motivation and commitment to school, personalize counseling services, and create more awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities. We can tell truant students they've made their bed and should lie in it, writes Wheelock. But that message has consequences of its own: Our truants of today will likely be our dropouts of tomorrow. Alternatively, we can act against prevailing ideology and do what is necessary to get all students to school and make staying there worthwhile. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/05-03/05-16-03/a17op079.htm LEAVING TEACHERS BEHIND ACORN has published a study documenting problems in the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. (NCLB) The report analyzes data from 24 states and 73 school districts, and finds that the Bush Administration and the U.S. Department of Education are selectively following through on the promises made under NCLB. The most important of these promises was to make sure that every child has a highly qualified teacher. NCLB also promised that teachers would be equitably distributed. The Administration has deliberately pushed states and school districts to comply with other provisions of NCLB while ignoring the two key requirements related to teachers. The Bush administration has pushed states to implement NCLB provisions related to school choice, supplemental services, and academic testing. The choice and supplemental service provisions uproot students and take money out of school district funds, which could be used to train and retain more qualified teachers. The report concludes that the Administration has not worked with the states to create the plans and definitions necessary to place a highly qualified teacher into every classroom, as the President committed to do when he signed the bill into law. http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/betterschools/releases/ltb.htm REVAMP RULES FOR CHOOSING ADMINISTRATORS, STUDY URGES Forget about erasing the shortage of good principals and superintendents. It won't happen, reports Scott Stephens. It won't happen, that is, using the conventional strategy of developing leaders from within the education ranks, according to a new study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Broad Foundation. The study recommends replacing conventional certification requirements for principals and superintendents with criteria that stress leadership qualities rather than formal training and education experience. It suggests recruiting school leaders from outside the education field and boosting their salaries to be competitive with other fields. http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/105342342339440.xml?oc SCHOOL CHOICE OFTEN ELUDES POOR AND MINORITIES, STUDY FINDS Massachusetts' sizable web of school-choice options is "unevenly and inequitably" distributed, leaving fewer chances for low-income or minority families to leave low-achieving schools, a new report asserts. At least 25 percent of Massachusetts' 1 million K-12 students attend school through some sort of choice, including private schools, charter schools, vocational schools, or a voluntary desegregation program that sends children from inner city Boston to the suburbs. But many options remain out of reach because of people's incomes, where they live, the availability of the information, or other barriers, according to the report, sponsored by The Boston Foundation. "If choice is a good thing for some of our citizens, we ought to use public policy to make it available more broadly," said Paul Reville, executive director of Mass-INC's Center for Education Research and Policy, which authored the report. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/141/metro/School_choice_often_eludes_poor_and_minorities_study_finds+.shtml CONNECTING WITH FAVORITE BOOKS Today, the lives and works of authors are made more accessible through portals that aggregate author material from all over the Web, allowing students and teachers to study, be inspired by, and connect with the people behind their favorite books and characters. Perhaps the richest and most exciting of these hubs is TeachingBooks.net. The goal of the site is to give all educators easy access to children's book authors and authoritative teaching resources. The huge multimedia children's literature database uses "cutting-edge technologies to connect educators and families with authors, books and authoritative teaching materials," said Nick Glass, who, before launching the site, was an educator and a bookseller. Glass is rightly proud of his accomplishment. He calls TeachingBooks "the ultimate children's literature portal -- indexing by author, title, subject and grade, all multimedia programs and resources about trade books that are currently freely available on the Web." Among the gathered goodies are teacher guides (more than 3,200!), National Public Radio interviews, a wealth of multimedia links, and authors' personal websites -- more than 6,500 links that are continually updated and checked for reliability. http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/columnists/joyce_kasman_valenza/5863031.htm |---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------| "Classroom Lending Library Project" >From May through June, 2003 -- or as long as supplies last -- the Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation will be giving away 800 classroom libraries. The libraries are intended to reach under resourced, mainstream, public school classrooms serving children who do not have adequate reading at home. The Foundation is currently taking applications from second grade teachers. The 2nd grade classroom lending libraries include between 60 and 80 new fiction and non-fiction books, primarily soft cover, with multiple copies of some titles. The Foundation will send the boxed libraries to any mainstream 2nd grade public school classroom teacher in the U. S. who can document significant need and who can receive mail delivered by the U.S. Post Office (must have a five code zip code). Because the number of classroom libraries is limited, applications will be evaluated on the basis of need, plans for use, and date of application. http://www.hellofriend.org "Advance Placement Incentive Program" The Department of Education announces the Advance Placement Incentive Program (API) that provides funds to eligible entities to enable them to increase the participation of low-income students in both pre-advanced placement and advanced placement courses and tests. Eligible applicants include local education agencies, state education agencies, and national nonprofit education organizations with expertise in advanced placement services. Application deadline: July 3, 2003. http://web99.ed.gov/GTEP/Program2.nsf/a5b8d6c38fdd4ca08525644400514f2c/8b59eeba26854f1485256882005c7590?OpenDocument "Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program" The Jordan Fundamentals Grants are awarded to teachers or paraprofessionals who work with students in grades 6-12 in a U.S. public school who also demonstrate instructional creativity and exemplify high learning expectations for economically disadvantaged students. Application deadline: June 15, 2003. http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=26&item=jordan "The Braitmayer Foundation" The Braitmayer Foundation supports organizations and programs that enhance the education of K-12 students through curricular and school reform initiatives, professional development for teachers, and local community efforts. Normally the grants are used as seed money, challenge grants, or to match other grants to the recipient organization. Proposals are due by June 30, 2003. http://www.braitmayerfoundation.org/guid.htm "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 Jenesis Group 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/ "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 Diane Rosenthal Assessment List Moderator Executive Director LVSG Stamford, CT (203) 324-5214
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