Franklin Schargel’s Blog

According to Diane Ravich’s blog and news reports, the new federal budget strips all funding from Race to the Top. According to the reports, states wanted to be eligible for part of Arne Duncan’s $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding, they were required to adopt the “college and career ready standards,” aka Common Core, even though no one had ever field tested them. States had to agree to evaluate teachers to a significant degree by student scores, even though there was no evidence for doing so. States had to open more charters, transferring control from public to private management. States had to create massive data systems to track students.

 

We wish you and your family a happy, healthy holiday and a glorious New Year and may this year bring peace to the world.

Franklin Schargel

If the $1.01 trillion spending bill unveiled by congressional leaders, passes without changes in these areas: the president’s chief education initiative, Race to the Top, loses all funding.

The Education Department would take a slight hit in funding; at $70.5 billion, down $133 million below the fiscal year 2014, but special education grants to states would get $25 million more than last year, up to $11.5 billion.

The $4.3 billion-dollar Race to the Top was Obama’s main education initiative, as an effort to ensure that every student was “college and career ready” and to achieve “educational equity” by aggressively  “turning around” the lowest-performing schools (or by closing them if they didn’t turn around fast enough.) The program was a competition among states for federal funding, with certain stipulations; states (and later districts) had to promise to implement specific school reforms favored by Education Secretary Arne Duncan in order to win the cash. The Gates Foundation awarded millions of dollars to states that sought its help in designing their Race to the Top contest entries. The program became controversial as some critics said it represented federal intrusion into local education (though states were not required to participate) and critics wondered how a competition among states  ““ which would create winners and losers “” could create educational equity.

There is also no funding for the Common Core State Standards in this legislation. The development of the standards and their implementation was not federally funded, though the Obama administration did provide $360 million to two multi-state consortia that developed new Core-aligned standardized tests, which are being given to students for the first time this school year.

The House and Senate congressional summaries of education-related funding in the 2015 omnibus bill highlight different things. The Republican-led House notes that Race to the Top is being eliminated, while the Senate version doesn’t mention it.

 

 

 

This Sunday, December 14, 2014 will mark two years since the unthinkable happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. There have been at least 95 school shootings since Sandy Hook. We owe it to our children and ourselves to build a country that doesn’t have to live in fear of a lockdown.

A number of agencies like the National Rifle Association have proposed things like arming all educators.  They believe that the solution to guns in school is to have more guns in school. A number of state legislatures have been discussing educators. While some educators have been taking lessons on firing a weapon, firing a weapon at a live human being is different than firing at a paper target. Besides, some school shooters were wearing bulletproof vests.  I wouldn’t want my child in a school where educators were armed.

Let us all remember the children and our colleagues who died two years ago at Sandy Hook.

American Teachers Spend More Time In The Classroom Than World Peers, Says Report

The Huffington Post  | By Rebecca Klein

• This year’s education report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) outlines the state of education in the world’s most developed countries. It finds that American elementary school teachers spend more hours actually teaching students than peers in any other surveyed country.
• How much time do American elementary school teachers spend in front of the classroom? : 1131 hours
• American middle school and high school teachers spend more time educating students than peers in every OECD country except Chile, according to the report. In addition to classroom time, U.S. teachers are required to be at school for more hours than most of their international peers.
• Despite the long hours, American teachers aren’t well compensated, Andreas Schleicher, OECD director of education and skills, explained in a call with reporters Monday. While U.S. raw teacher salaries are high compared with the rest of the world, the pay lags behind that of similarly educated American workers.
• “Teacher pay relative to other countries, in absolute terms, is quite competitive in the United States,” said Schleicher. “But when you look at this relative to the earnings of other people with college degrees, actually the United States is pretty much at the end of the scale.”
• The OECD  shows how teachers’ salaries compare with other college-educated workers in each country. The report found that teachers are paid more than comparably educated workers in only seven countries. U.S. teacher pay looks especially bleak when it’s calculated over a working career. The OECD report shows American teacher salaries increase less than the average of OECD countries after 15 years of experience.
• A study from the Center for American Progress in July found that slow teacher salary growth contributes to high turnover. Research shows that 13 percent of teachers each year move schools or leave the profession.
• “The bottom line is that mid- and late-career teachers are not earning what they deserve, nor are they able to gain the salaries that support a middle-class existence,” says the report.
•   As a nation we, need to do far more to attract — and keep — mid and late-career teachers. In the end, if we truly want to retain top talent in our classrooms, we need to offer top-talent salaries.

 

Nearly two-thirds of 3-to 5-year-olds were enrolled in preschool in 2012, and 60 percent of them were in full-day programs, according to the latest “2014 Condition of Education” report from the National Center for Education Statistics which tracks developments and trends in the U.S. education system.

Among this year’s other key findings:

• The report notes that, as of 2013, about 90 percent of young adults ages 25 to 29 held high school or equivalent diplomas and 34 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree. It also noted that individuals in this age group with a bachelor’s degree earned more than twice as much as high school dropouts.
•  At the elementary and secondary levels, 50 million public school students were enrolled in 2011. Over 2 million of these students were enrolled in charter schools.
• In 2012, one in five school-age children lived in poverty. This percentage has increased in the past decade: In 2000, this number was closer to one in seven.
• In the 2011-2012 school year, 81 percent of public high school students, about 3.1 million total, graduated high school on time with a regular diploma.

So while public school graduation rates improve, the number of students living in poverty has increased. 

The Growth of Hispanics in the United States

 

A new report from Child Trends, Hispanic Institute, America’s Hispanic Children: Gaining Ground, Looking Forward. Source: https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014-38AmericaHispanicChildren.pdf

The United States is seeing an unprecedented change in the makeup of its population””and, particularly, its children. Reflecting trends that are truly global, the people of the United States are more diverse””in national origins, color, and language background””than ever before in our history. Hispanics comprise the single largest share of this new diversity, and Hispanic children lead the way. The percentage of U.S. children who are Hispanic is growing rapidly

Hispanics are nearly one in four of U.S. children “”17.5 million, as of 2013. The percentage of the child population that is Hispanic has more than doubled over the last three decades. By 2050, the share of children who are Hispanic is projected to pull even with the proportion who are white””each accounting for about one-third of the total child population. Nearly all Latino children””over 90 percent””were born here in the United States. In fact, much of the recent growth in the Latino population has been a result of births to families already living here, rather than immigration.

However, for many Hispanic families, immigration is an important feature of their experience. While the great majority of Latino children are U.S. citizens, many have family members who immigrated to the United States. This includes those who are legal permanent residents, naturalized citizens, or lack legal status. As of 2013, more than half of Latino children have at least one parent who was born outside the United States.

Among U.S. Hispanic children, seven in ten have Mexican heritage. The next-largest group is those whose heritage is Puerto Rican, followed by Salvadoran, Dominican, Cuban, other countries in Central America, and South America. Children from Central America typically come from rural areas, and their families have often fled violence and poverty. Cubans and South Americans, on average, are among the economically better-off. Dominicans and Mexicans””in spite of their longstanding ties to this country””experience the most residential segregation, while all Hispanic groups, excepting South Americans, disproportionately live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The diversity of Latino children varies by region. While in most regions of the U.S. the majority of Latino children have Mexican heritage, in the Northeast, children from Central and South America predominate, followed by Puerto Ricans, with Mexicans in a distant third place. The South holds not only the largest share of Cuban children, but also the second-largest share of Puerto Rican children.

The extent to which Latinos tend to live in neighborhoods with other Latinos varies, but more than half do not live in predominantly Latino communities. Hispanic children are part of every state’s future. In New Mexico and California, they are already a majority of children. Some regions””the Southwestern states, California, Texas, Florida, and the metropolitan areas of the Northeastern states””have long histories of Hispanic settlement. But other regions have seen more recent and rapid change: among them, several states in the Midwest (Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota) and South (Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina). And places where Hispanics are traditionally concentrated are changing, too: in New York City, Puerto Ricans have lost nearly 40 percent of their share of the total Hispanic population (from 50 percent in 1990, to 31 percent in 2010), and Mexicans have more than tripled theirs (from four to 15 percent). In Miami, the share of Hispanics who are Cuban has fallen by 11 percent (from 62 to 55 percent), while South Americans have increased their share by one-third (from 12 to 18 percent).

At the same time, many Hispanic families struggle to get ahead. The majority of Hispanic children (62 percent) live in low-income families””conventionally defined as those with incomes less than twice the federal poverty level, where many experts believe families can just meet basic needs. Roughly one in three Hispanic children lives in poverty. And one in eight lives in deep poverty (family income less than half the poverty line). The disparity between Hispanic children and white children in economic well-being is greatest when it comes to those in married-parent families: just one in nine white children living with married parents is in poverty, whereas for Hispanic children it is more than one in five. Poverty is also higher among Hispanic children who have at least one foreign-born parent, compared with those who have two U.S.-born parents

Children who experience poverty are at a higher risk for many negative outcomes: poor health, lower school performance, delinquent behavior, unemployment, and dependence on public assistance. Prolonged economic hardship acts as a form of chronic stress, jeopardizing children’s brain development and contributing to their susceptibility to disease. Many Latino children live in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty. Over a third of all Latino children live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, Where the preponderance of low educational attainment among adults, lower-quality housing, lower-quality schools, and crime all constrain their opportunities. A majority (52 percent) of Latino children live in neighborhoods that, according to their parents, are “always” safe, while 23 percent live in neighborhoods parents consider “never” safe.

Many Hispanic children live in crowded housing. One in four Hispanic children shares a bedroom with three or more family members””a proportion five times higher than among non-Hispanic white children. Hispanic children with at least one foreign-born parent, and children from Mexican or Central American families, are much more likely to experience crowded housing.*Defined as more than two household members per bedroom. If no bedrooms, more than one household member per room. **Includes single-parent households.

More than two-thirds of Latino children have at least one parent who works full-time, all year (and one in six has two parents working full-time). Latino youth also make significant contributions to their families’ economic security. One in ten Latino high enrolled in college. Of those not enrolled in school, six in ten are working. On the other hand, many Hispanic youth are not in the labor force. The labor market prospects for all young people (youth and young adults) have taken a hit in recent years. In 2011, among Hispanic teens (ages 16 to 19), more than half, and, among young adults (20 to 24), nearly a third were part of the “under-utilized” labor force (which includes those who had given up looking for work, and those having to suffice with part-time work, as well as those who were unemployed).Hispanic young men (ages 16 to 19) have more work experience than their peers, which improves their employment prospects overall, but this group has been less successful in gaining full-time jobs.

Of particular concern are youth who are neither employed nor enrolled in school. While there are multiple path ways to success, the consequences of unemployment, under-employment, or not acquiring post-secondary education can be damaging and enduring. Youth neither enrolled in school nor working are less likely to achieve economic self-sufficiency, and are at risk for multiple additional poor outcomes. As of 2012, one in ten Hispanic 16- to 19-year-olds was in this category.

Society suffers when prosperity is not widely shared. The logic of the new demographics is that, when the nation fails to nurture Latino children, it fails to nurture one-quarter of the workforce of the next generation””the proportion of the workforce in 2050 that is projected to be Latino. For most Latinos, there are few things that are more important than family. Eight in ten U.S. adults, according to a 2012 survey, agree that immigrants from Latin American countries have “strong family values.” And among Latinos themselves, more than 90 percent of adults consider “being a good parent” to be “very important.” Two-thirds of Latino teens say their parents praise them for good behavior nearly every day””a higher percentage than either white or black teens report.

Most Hispanic children live with both parents. Nearly six in ten Hispanic children (58 percent) live with two married parents. One in ten lives with two cohabiting adults, at least one of which is a biological or adoptive parent. Around one in four lives with their mother only, and small percentages live with their father only, or with neither of their parents (less than five percent in each case). One important opportunity to develop strong parent-child relationships and family connectedness is around family meals. Like other forms of parental involvement, frequent family meals are associated with positive behavioral outcomes for both children and teens, regardless of ethnicity. Eating with parents can also have a positive influence on the nutrition and eating habits of adolescents. Latino children are more likely than their white or black peers to eat a meal with family members six or seven days in a week.

Latino children are also more likely than either black or white children to share a family meal that is home-cooked.

Promoting early literacy and parental involvement. Latino parents of young children (ages three to five) read, tell stories, sing, work on arts and crafts, and teach letters and numbers, with them on a regular basis. However, research finds that, as a group, Latinos are less likely than white parents to read daily to young children: a little more than a third of Latino children have parents who do so, compared with two-thirds of white children. Thus, some parents are missing an opportunity to promote early literacy skills that can help their children get a strong start in school.

Much of the report contradicts what we are being told in the media.

 

Why Does It Take 6 Years To Finish College?

College is supposed to be the best four years of your life. But there’s increasingly a new norm for students: spending six years getting a degree. Even the government now measures whether students graduate on time if they do it within six years, rather than four. At a time when total student debt has surpassed $1 trillion, getting students to graduate on time has become critical.

Taking longer to graduate isn’t cheap. It costs $15,933 more in tuition, fees and room and board for every extra year at a public two-year college and $22,826 for every added year at a public four-year college, according to a report by the nonprofit Complete College America.

So what’s the reason behind students spending so much extra time getting their degrees? According to the report, colleges have added too many unnecessary degree requirements and remedial courses that keep students in school for much longer than needed. A recent Education Department study found that the average graduate had accumulated 138.4 credits by the time they received a bachelor’s degree, when 120 is usually sufficient. Tack on another 20.3 credits for the average amount of courses that students fail, repeat or withdraw from and those credit hours jump to 158.7 credits earned or attempted. At an estimated cost of $361 per credit, those credits start to add up.

“Most colleges and universities raise tuition and fees each year, while financial aid stays nearly constant,” researchers wrote. “As scholarships and savings run out, students and their families are left to borrow more of the costs of attending school.” Administrators at Temple University and University of Texas at Austin, for example, told researchers that two extra years at their campuses increase debt by nearly 70 percent among students who borrow.

If schools want to rein in costs for students, Complete College America recommends they streamline curricula and cap the number of credit hours needed for bachelor’s degree at 120 hours and for an associate degree at 60 hours.

Those hours are the already standard for a majority of degrees, though some schools have let departments pile on additional course work over the years. Capping credit hours, the report says, would make it easier for students to graduate on time as long as they take 15 credit hours a semester.

Carrying a full course load, however, may not work for students juggling school, work and family, not to mention those who simply can’t afford to the cost. Nearly two thirds of students at community colleges, for instance, attend part-time because of those sorts of obligations, according to data from the American Association of Community Colleges. Earning an associates in two years would certainly reduce costs for those students, but increasing their grant aid would arguably be more effective.

Still, schools could do a better job of creating a more direct route to graduation, the report says. Offering more sections of core classes, accepting transfer credits or simply monitoring students’ course loads are just some of the strategies colleges could use to increase on-time graduation.

As it stands, only 50 out of the more than 580 public four-year institutions report on-time graduation rates at or above 50 percent for their first-time, full-time students, according to the Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

At the University of Arizona, only 34 percent of students graduate within six years, according to Department of Education data. At Michigan State University, it’s 48 percent. Overall, at flagship universities, only 36 percent of students are getting their degrees within six years.

Another part of the problem, according to Complete College America, is the “broken” system of remedial courses that students with weak academic records are required to take.

About 20 percent of college students are enrolled in remedial classes, according to the most recent data from the Education Department. That means they must take courses in math or English to help them catch up to the rest of their classmates. But those classes don’t count toward a degree and tend to delay students from graduating on time.

Complete College America wants schools to offer remediation alongside college-level courses, instead of having students take remedial classes before their core courses. Think of it as intensive tutoring.

Rather than all incoming freshman taking algebra, for instance, GPS would let students with no interest in science or math degrees take math courses that are relevant to their major, like statistics or quantitative-reasoning classes.

Five states, including Massachusetts and Illinois, have launched GPS initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math programs, while Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee are working to scale up broader programs rooted in the GPS model.

The spartan approach to graduation is unlikely to win fans among students who want an array of courses or the professors who teach them. Placing students on a narrow path to graduation could also deprive them of the chance to explore subjects that don’t neatly fit into their major.

But at a time when graduation rates have slumped and the cost of attending college has reached stratospheric heights, it’s hard to argue against more streamlined programs””and a return to four years as the norm again for college.

The report fails to mention that a number of students take few classes per semester to balance jobs to pay for schools.