ACET, Inc. Blog

In conjunction with the Toyota Family Learning initiative, the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL)is accepting applications for five three-year grants of $175,000, along with NCFL communications support and training, to develop services that engage or mentor families in learning together, as well as family service learning projects. Applicants may be schools (public or charter), libraries, community-based organizations, or any other organization that provides services to educational services to families, including children from 4 to 18 years of age, grandparents, parents, and legal guardians, as well as a high percentage of minority and/or low-income families in two or three unique sites. Preferred projects will adapt existing family engagement in education efforts to include family mentoring, interactive literacy activities between children and parents, service learning components, and parental training. Activities and experiences from these projects will be shared on the Toyota Family Learning Web site.

For complete information, please see the full RFP. Applications are due June 24, and successful grantees will be notified in July.

Energy company Westinghouse Electric is offering $1,000 grants to three schools for projects with a STEM-centered focus through its N-Visioning a Brighter Future initiative. Successful grantees will also receive an additional $2,000 for their respective science departments for general needs. Successful projects will directly involve students, incorporate community resources, and/or employ team-teaching or interdisciplinary strategies. Eligible applicants must be located in the United States and may be elementary, middle, or high schools. For complete information, please see the full RFP [opens PDF]. The deadline for applications is November 15.

Good Luck!

ACET Staff

Currently in use by 45 states, 4 territories, and the District of Columbia (and partially adopted by the State of Minnesota), Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being adopted in addition to and in the place of other K-12 standards. What are they, where do they come from, and what does this mean for K-12 students going forward?

Common Core State Standards are a series of mathematic and English language arts benchmarks, organized by grade. They are state, rather than federally led or implemented initiatives, led by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association. For instance, if you click on a subsection of the standards on the CCSS in English Language Arts and you will see statements outlining what students in each grade ought to be able to perform. For example, kindergartners are expected to follow agreed-upon rules for a discussion and must be able to follow a conversation across multiple exchanges in the Speaking & Listening category. In the same category, 7^th graders are expected to be able to evaluate the sufficiency and the relevance of evidence given by a speaker. These standard ideas were researched and compared against existing state and international benchmarks before being released in 2010.

The intention of the CCSS is to unify K-12 assessment standards across the states, but also to require more of students than merely answering test questions by rote (they must also be able to explain why their answer is correct and how they arrived at it). The CCSS is intended to lead to better reasoning and problem solving skills by teaching several skills at a time within a larger question, rather than taking on a single skill at a time.

The effects of a massive, unified assessment system are very broad and wide-reaching. For example, the CCSS could define what makes a student “college ready”. Officials currently using the standards report an “unprecedented” level of collaboration and cooperation between post-secondary and K-12 educators as they work to examine the effect of the CCSS on the need for remedial coursework on students entering colleges and universities. In addition, current textbooks and other teaching materials may need to be adapted or reinvented in order to adhere to the standards. There is also currently no equivalency exam or modified version of the exam for students with special needs, and all students in a school must take the same CCSS assessment to have their results reported for accountability. The CCSS may be more rigorous than a given state’s previous standards, but they may be less rigorous than another state’s. There are also, as yet, no comprehensive standards with regard to social studies and sciences, so it is still up to individual states to determine what those standards ought to be.

Even as nationwide adoption of the CCSS seems near, attitudes seem to be changing about them. A belief persists that the CCSS is a federal effort to force socialized education on states without discussion through the No Child Left Behind Act, even though this is denounced as a myth on the CCSS website. The Republican National Committee has passed an anti-Common Core resolution, claiming that the CCSS is a violation of states’ rights. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats have pointed to evidence that CCSS testing is no better than previous state testing at determining student achievement, despite assurances to the contrary. Some states have begun to change their minds regarding standards adoption, and others have criticized poor or incomplete transitions to the new standards. The education package just passed by the State of Minnesota seems to be a step away from, rather than towards, full CCSS adoption. Add to this the current anxiety about testing and its validity, and unified national assessment standards start to seem much further off.

Whatever direction the CCSS progresses in, it appears the conversation is far from over.

ACET Staff

As a part of budgetary negotiations that wrapped up with the State of Minnesota’s 2013 legislative session Monday evening, a $15.7 billion education bill has been approved and is expected to be signed by Governor Mark Dayton. This education bill includes $134 million for school districts to use for free, full-day kindergarten starting in the fall of 2014. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, districts have the option to provide or not provide full-day kindergarten, but where it is offered, it will be free to parents. It is expected to affect nearly 60,000 students across the state.

Other features of the education bill include $46 million for early childhood scholarships to parents in need, $250 million in state higher education spending to freeze University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) tuition prices for two years, and an elimination of the GRAD test as a requirement for graduation from Minnesota high schools, to be replaced by other assessments. The State of Minnesota will also increase spending on assessment by $6.7 million in the coming 2-year period.

ACET Staff

Recent articles regarding teacher performance evaluation have shed light on the phenomenon of leniency bias. Also known as leniency error and performance or interview bias, leniency bias comes when an interviewer or manager inappropriately or unfairly rates an employee in a positive light. It also comes into play when jurors  [opens PDF] develop favorable opinions of a defendant in a court case outside of the facts presented.

With regard to evaluation, leniency bias has been described using the famous, fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon: everyone there is above average in some way. When assessing teacher effectiveness, as many as 98 percent of teachers were rated effective or better, regardless of how their students were performing, and relatively few (3 to 4 percent) were given the lowest possible effectiveness ratings and subsequently fired for poor performance. This comes despite calls for greater accountability from teachers and education administrators and claims that “5 to 10 percent” of teachers are ineffective. Outside of education, private companies with multiple tiers of performance tend to rate most employees in their top two echelons, above average and higher.

Why, when given the opportunity to identify ineffectiveness in a system and rectify the “problem” of ineffective teachers, does it happen so infrequently? In the example of teacher effectiveness, one reason is that the effectiveness (or lack thereof) changes depending on the measurement. At one point, Florida teachers were being evaluated half on student test scores and half on classroom evaluations, but the acceptable test score range has changed frequently in recent years, while the observation assessment at one point consisted of a single 20 minute observation in one year. Because of these shifting measurements, from year to year teachers can fluctuate between being labeled “effective” to “ineffective” and back again, rendering the designations moot.

Another factor that has been discussed are the risks that principals and other supervisors must take into account when determining effectiveness beyond performance. The demands on and for a teacher can differ widely depending on socio-economic and geographic impact, as does the likelihood of quickly replacing a teacher. As previously discussed on ACET’s blog, the state of Minnesota’s own desire to measure more complicated indicators of student growth and success has led to the adoption of its own standards. Principals who must contend with low turnover and a low supply of available teachers in the local job market risk a lengthy, expensive search for replacements in a field where up to 60 percent of professionals leave after their third year (per the Georgetown Public Policy Review). Rather than undertaking such searches, some principals may feel that it is better to stick with an ineffective but established teacher than expend resources on an unknown quantity that could potentially be even worse.

Another proposed reason for this leniency bias is that there is no bias at all, that there just isn’t “5 to 10 percent” worth of ineffective teachers to remove. Foundations and publications have reviewed the evaluations that produced so few identifications of ineffectiveness and found the resulting data, while not yet ready for mass consumption, conforms to their own suspicions of the true level of teacher ineffectiveness (3 to 4 percent, rather than the proposed 5 to 10).New evaluation systems continue to be developed to address these factors. However, it seems appropriate to conclude that as soon as a solid set of measurements has been decided on, it will be easier to determine if teacher effectiveness is the indicator of student success that it has been held up to be.

Mary

As evaluators, ACET staff understand the importance of creating or selecting a measurement tool that constitutes the right fit for the client and the data to be measured. The Multiple Measurements Rating (MMR), implemented by the State of Minnesota last year following its No Child Left Behind waiver, is an attempt at just such a measurement tool. Recognizing the need for assessments with a focus beyond test proficiency, the MMR evaluates schools in four areas: achievement gap reduction, growth, and graduation rate, in addition to proficiency.

An article at MinnPost this week illustrated why different approaches to measurement are needed by focusing on one of Minnesota’s many charter schools that serve the unique needs of at risk youth, or those otherwise unable to thrive in the traditional school system. By the measurement standards of No Child Left Behind, these schools are consistently underperforming, but the concern of charter school and state legislature officials is that the federal measurements do not capture progress made towards standards but only whether or not students achieved standards.

Nationwide, states have expressed that waivers have given them the freedom to develop their own assessment tools as they see fit. However, others have expressed frustration that there no longer seems to be a unified national metric for school and student success, as so many states have opted out of No Child Left Behind and its measurement requirements. Is it possible to have measurement tools that satisfy these micro and macro needs?

Mary

State departments of education are looking for ways to ensure that new teachers are well-prepared for the rigors of managing a classroom and assisting students to achieve local, state, and national educational goals. Minnesota’s latest strategy will be the use of a new assessment of student teachers (students that are not yet certified, but are gaining classroom experience for certification), the edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment). Beginning in 2013, the results of the edTPA, in conjunction with other data, will be used to determine if Minnesota’s institutes of higher education – the teacher preparation programs – have prepared graduates to succeed in their own classrooms, and if the program has approval from the state to continue.

The edTPA resembles a portfolio. Student teachers submit past lesson plans, examples of student work and the student teachers’ responses, and videotape(s) of the student teacher leading a lesson in a classroom. The goal of the edTPA is to provide the teacher preparation programs with information about how well their graduates have been prepared for the classroom. For example, in recent administrations of the theory-based test, Minnesota’s student teachers scored well in preparing lesson plans, but appeared to lack skills at giving students feedback. Minnesota’s institutes of higher education have already begun to use that information to improve their programs and better prepare student teachers.

Advocates for the edTPA feel that the assessment gives greater insight into how student teachers’ skills will be used in the classroom. In turn, the test will provide teacher preparation programs with invaluable data about how well the program is preparing graduates.

However, critics of the edTPA have several concerns about widespread use of the assessment. For instance, many teacher preparation programs already require that student teachers videotape themselves, view the videotape, and reflect on what they have observed. Adding the edTPA will require that students to go through the process twice in a short time frame. Critics are also concerned that programs administering the edTPA have not shared data. Little is known about the connection between a student teacher’s performance on the edTPA and student gains in the classroom.

What are your thoughts on the edTPA and teacher preparedness?

ACET Staff

Loan guarantor Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation has announced grants of up to $300,000 as a part of its College Ready program for the 2013-14 school year. This program is designed to support community organizations and nonprofit universities and colleges in their efforts to help students of color, students who will be the first in their families to go to college, and low-income households prepare for academic success. Eligible nonprofit post-secondary schools and community organizations will be located in Minnesota and Wisconsin and provide academic services to traditionally underserved adult learners and students in grades 6 through 12. Grade point averages, ACT/SAT scores, and pre- and post-test scores will be used to measure student achievement. For application information and data on past successes, please see the Great Lakes Higher Education Web site. The deadline for applications is December 7.

Good luck!

ACET Staff

The Institute of International Education, with the support of the United States Institute for Peace, has announced the first application cycle for its U.S. Institute of Peace Public Education for Peacebuilding Support Program, which will give out 250 grants of up to $2,000 over the next year to public libraries, colleges, and universities to hold events advancing and promoting the understanding of international conflict resolution and peacebuilding. This funding may be used for lectures, workshops, library or Web-based forums, or speaker programs, among other activities, so long as they are held during the spring 2013 academic semester and address international conflict and resolution issues. In addition to U.S. public libraries and accredited colleges and universities, academic departments, student-led groups endorsed by a faculty member or administrator, academic clubs, and consortia are eligible to apply. The due date for the first application cycle is November 1st. More information and materials can be found at the Institute of Peace website.

The American Library Association’s Public Programs Office has also announced the opening of applications for the 2013 Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Exemplary Humanities Programming. Eligible school libraries are in the United States, may be either public or private, are staffed by a state-certified librarian, have served children grades K-8, and have conducted humanities programs during the 2011-2012 school year. The humanities programming can be focused in any related subject area, including social studies, foreign language and culture, and music. The $4,000 honorarium and plaque will be awarded to a program or program series that focuses on broadening perspectives and helping students understand their place in the wider world, be initiated and coordinated by the school librarian, and demonstrate the library’s role in advancing the school’s educational goals. A free online learning session regarding the award will be held on October 24, and the deadline for applications is December 15. See the ALA website to begin the application process.

The National Gardening Association’s Youth Garden Grants, sponsored by the Home Depot Garden Club, have announced awards of 5 $1,000 gift cards and 95 $500 gift cards from Home Depot to go to schools and community organizations with garden programs geared to children between the ages of 3 and 18. Eligible groups may come from U.S. youth groups, community centers, treatment facilities, camps, or intergenerational groups in addition to schools, but must plan to garden with at least 15 children. Previous winners may reapply, but must wait one year after winning to do so. Priority programs will be those that integrate environmental awareness, entrepreneurship, content standards, nutrition, and social concepts such as service-learning, team building, and leadership development. Please see the NGA’s award webpage for more information.

Good Luck!

ACET Staff

Grocery chain Whole Foods Market and its Whole Kids Foundation, dedicated to improving nutrition and wellness in youth towards ending childhood obesity, have announced a fundraising goal of $2 million for its Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program. Beginning this month, K-12 schools participating in the USDA’s National School Lunch Program are eligible to apply for a grant to bring a salad bar to their school. Schools with bronze status or higher with the HealthierUS School Challenge automatically qualify for a salad bar donation, with the requirement that the qualifying district or school wants and can support a daily lunchtime salad bar.

While the deadline for this opportunity is open, grants will be awarded based on date of approval. Complete information and application instructions can be found at saladbars2schools.org.

Good luck!

ACET Staff

Here at ACET, we have the opportunity to work with a variety of education and health-related programs. As an up-and-coming public health professional, I like to keep an eye on professional development opportunities related to public health – luckily, Minnesota is home to many! Though there are several public health conferences and events scheduled throughout the state this fall, I’d like to focus on three upcoming conferences that are open to all who are interested in public health issues.

The first is the 9th Annual Women’s Health Research Conference, being held September 24th at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center. The Women’s Health Research Conference is hosted by the Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health, and this year’s focus is mature women’s health. The conference features keynote speeches on various physical health issues related to aging; breakout sessions on mental, physical, and sexual health; and a poster session featuring research projects done by public health and medical professionals, researchers, and students.

The next conference I’d like to highlight is the 2012 Community Health Conference, sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Health. The focus of this year’s Community Health Conference, scheduled for October 3rd through the 5th in Brainerd, is “Strengthening Public Health: Linking Past Successes to Future Challenges.” Dr. Edward Ehlinger, the current Minnesota Commissioner of Health, will be a keynote speaker; attendees will also have the opportunity to attend a discussion headed by a panel of former Minnesota commissioners of health. Topics of discussion include health disparities and local data, public health systems research, and the building of community partnerships.

Finally, from October 25th through the 26th, the 2012 Many Faces of Community Health Conference — entitled “Stepping Up to Transform Health Care” this year — will be held in Bloomington. This conference is jointly coordinated by the Minnesota Association of Community Health Centers, the Minnesota Department of Health Diabetes Program and Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention Unit, and the Greater Twin Cities United Way. The 2012 Many Faces of Community Health Conference is intended to help public health professionals and health care providers reduce health disparities and improve care delivered to underserved populations. Attendees will explore challenges and opportunities in reducing health disparities, preventing chronic disease, and improving access to health care.

Registration information for these events can be found on their respective conference websites.

Are you attending any conferences or events for professional development this fall? Have you attended an event that really impaced your career or education? Please share in the comments!

Elizabeth