Weekly Roundup for February 17, 2012

>   In an Education Next interview with Frederick Hess, John White, the new Louisiana State Superintendent and former deputy superintendent at the NYCDOE, argues that “we need organizations that are actively building a sense of the community’s power to choose a better education for their children. Until we have that, our reforms will be provider-led rather than consumer-led; that’s sustainable for a while, but not in perpetuity.” Exactly! Good news, Mr. White, here’s a list of community organizations who have partnered up with schools and are “pulling the change” in your backyard.

>   In economic news, the 2011 Kids Count report is out and Annie E. Casey Foundation President and Chief Executive, Patrick McCarthy, “has never seen the landscape for America’s at-risk children and families quite so alarming.” Meanwhile, on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust discussed how income, more than race, is driving the achievement gap.

>  But don’t let the bleak job market get you down, college students. Here’s another option: In The Root DC, Jeff Franco of City Year Washington explains why soon-to-be college grads should consider committing to a year of service to expand learning.

>   In Chicago, 13 principals explain why a longer school day works for them in this Op-Ed in the Chicago Sun-Times. And in the Huffington Post, a group of teachers in the city’s charter schools offer their fellow educators three ways to use the extended day wisely.

>   On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart debated Race to the Top, standardized testing, and the narrowing of the curriculum with one of Harvard’s most famous basketball alums. (No, not that one.) Check out Part 3 of the extended online interview to hear how great things can happen when schools and communities work together.

Featured Friday Funding Opportunity:

2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge
The National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to motivate interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. Entries can be created using any game-making platform including, but not limited to, written concepts, Gamestar Mechanic, Microsoft’s Kodu Game Lab, GameMaker and Scratch.

Deadline: March 12

And now for something completely different:

News in brief from The Onion: “According to a report from the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday, watching a single episode of the British TV series Downton Abbey is the cultural and educational equivalent of reading an entire book.” Does watching these spoofs (#1 and #2) count as reading a short story?

Last activity in the ExpandED day at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School--African drumming.

 

Data Walls and King Cakes

Last week, TASC hosted a two-day convening of the schools in our ExpandED national demonstration. Over 50 leaders from New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans gathered in New York to learn from one another, to share challenges and success, and to establish accountability practices.

Note: ALWAYS make sure to invite the New Orleanians—they bring the party with them, as evident by the King Cakes that our friends from the Partnership for Youth Development had shipped to our office!

We had a series of thought provoking conversations, and we shared experiences across sectors that really brought to life ExpandED schools. School teams spoke about several different strategies for sharing accountability toward results including the use of data folders that are accessible to teachers and community educators and educating parents and caregivers on how standardized tests are used and scored.

A highlight of the convening was a visit to two ExpandED Schools in Manhattan, PS 188 on the Lower East Side and the Thurgood Marshall Lower Academy School (TMALS), in Harlem. On the visit to TMALS, I was struck by the “Data Wall” that was prominently displayed on the second floor of the school.

This public display of results illustrating where the school currently stands and where it aspires to be, coupled with the call to action for everyone who passes by (students, parents, teachers, and yes, even out-of-town visitors) was inspiring.

This, in my mind symbolizes true accountability. I was amazed when our fifth-grade host spoke about his “acuity”scores, about the steps the school was taking to improve their performance and how they all were working hard to be their best.

There is a heated national debate around school assessment and the role that test scores should play. Regardless of what measures a school community chooses to use—standardized tests, qualitative measures, or portfolios—I think every school would be benefit from having a data wall to inform and inspire.

A New Gallery in Harlem

Guest post by Tiffany O’Neal, Special Assistant to the President, TASC

I love exploring art galleries. If you were to happen upon my Facebook pics, you’d see I’m that person who takes pictures of the art hanging on the walls and the sculptures along the hallways. I’ll even pose with them as if I’m posing with a friend. So of course I had a great time at yesterday’s opening reception for the Rush Gallery at the Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School (TMALS), an ExpandED School in Harlem.

TMALS partnered with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to create this gallery, which features the work of the school’s students, teachers and staff. Students serve as gallery docents, and I experienced how eager they are to explain and showcase their work. On this particular day the gallery featured three pieces; Eyes in the Sky (pictured above), A Contemplative Gaze, and Mediating Constellations.

I enjoyed seeing the older students walk the younger ones through the gallery.  And just like when I have explored the Met or the National Gallery of Art, I found myself just standing and staring at the pieces, admiring both their simplicity and complexity.

I am also that person who touches the art, and I have had my fair share of scolding. Fortunately the student docents are little more understanding.

The Rush Gallery at TMALS will feature these pieces for the next three weeks and then display new ones. The public may visit on school days between 8 AM and 2 PM; just call the school to make an appointment: 212-368-8731.

Digital Learning Beyond School

Today is Digital Learning Day, a great moment to reflect on the potential of informal educators who operate expanded learning time schools and after-school and summer programs to bring digital learning to kids with the fewest advantages.

Technology is dramatically changing the way young people learn, especially when they’re learning on their own. Kids with the financial means are online every day—both in school and at home—living the hopeful motto that PBSKids Lab stamps on its website: “Every new technology is an opportunity for learning.”

But the digital divide is real. In this age of digital learning, fewer than 1 in 10 low-income families have a mobile reading device at home. And many of the organizations that work with kids outside of the traditional school day—and which overwhelmingly work with kids with great educational and economic needs—are still on the sidelines, interested but lacking infrastructure, tools or staffing.

With digital learning, we have a chance to ensure that the least advantaged kids are not left behind once again. Thanks to support from the Motorola Mobility Foundation and hosting by Google, we brought together educa­tion and technology leaders at a public event last summer to explore partner­ships that leverage technology to give all kids access to learning anywhere at any time. That meeting informed the principles, case studies, and practice and policy recommendations we included in our new white paper on technology-enabled learning in out-of-school time, which we are releasing today.

This work has taught us that the smart use of technology can help schools and their community partners overcome learn­ing and opportunity gaps among students, in part by embracing the passion they bring to exploring and creating through digital media. With the benefit of tech­nology, community organizations have the potential to help schools transform the educational landscape by connecting schools, families, youth-serving organiza­tions, museums and libraries in ways that transcend physical boundaries.

As we rally around digital learning today, let’s not forget the community organizations and educators who work with kids beyond traditional school hours. Some already are on the cutting edge of digital learning—in our white paper and video below we profile four organizations that are maximizing the potential of learning technologies in New York City: MOUSE, Global Kids, Thurgood Marshall Academy for Leadership and Social Change and Institute of Play. Let’s make sure that all educators—and the kids they teach—have the tools, infrastructure and content to do the same.

Is It Our Common Core Too?

Many forward-thinking NYC community educators and CBO leaders gathered at TASC today to discuss with Gregg Betheil how they can help their schools help students meet the newly instituted New York State Common Core standards. As Executive Director of the Office of School Programs & Partnerships for the NYC Department of Education, Gregg’s been taking his Common Core road show to museums, universities and all kinds of organizations that partner with teachers and principals to expand learning in schools.

His objective in de-mystifying the new learning standards, Gregg said, is to help organizations adapt their work to help students meet standards—and also to communicate their value to principals. Principals are overwhelmed by pitches and offers from well-intentioned community and other organizations that want to partner with schools. Those who understand the new standards—and who understand how they will change instruction—have a leg up on getting a principal’s attention and interest.

For those who weren’t at our conference, this NYC DOE library is a good place to dig into the standards and their adaptability to after-school and informal learning activities.

One way community partners can start helping schools right now is to integrate more non-fiction (“informational texts” in edu-jargon) into their literacy activities, Gregg suggested. He asked our group how many of us read non-fiction with our kids as well as fiction. (Not many.) By the time kids are mid-way through elementary school, the Common Core standards call for a 50-50 mix of fiction and non-fiction in the school curriculum. By high school, the mix should be 85-15.

Thoughts on the State of the Union

I admit it – I’m a sucker for the State of the Union. I get excited wondering what the theme will be and how effectively it will be employed throughout the speech, predicting who will applaud when, anticipating which special guests will draw tears, calculating when the cameras will pan to the First Lady. It doesn’t hurt that President Obama is a great orator.

I am significantly less enthusiastic about the after-party: while the notion of an “opposition” response makes me feel like I’m back in Jamaica, I could do without the endless, often absurd news analysis (“how many times did the President say…”) that follows. So I’ll keep my reflections brief:

>    I liked the whole “Built to Last” motif. It definitely invoked the notion of solid American products, but he introduced it with the vision of a country “that leads the world in educating its people.” There is no stronger foundation.

>    I wish he had applied the level playing field analogy that he used for American businesses to American students. We need a unit to ensure equity in our schools.

>    The decision to keep kids in school until they turn 18 struck me as odd, not the type of educational expansion I was hoping to hear about. Longer, richer schools days? Yes. Enriched summer learning? Absolutely. A broader curriculum that recognizes students social, emotional development needs and prepares them for the jobs of the future? Let’s do it! But force schools to hold them until they’re 18? I don’t know. I’m hearing that there’s research to back it up, but it seems to me that our energies would be better spent making school more engaging and relevant so that kids wanted to stay. Enrollment in schools is not the end game as is evidenced by the alarming statistics on chronic absenteeism and its impact on all students in those schools.

>    Immigrant students (DREAMers) deserve a shot at the opportunity that attracted their parents to this country and all young people deserve “an education that encourages talent and ingenuity.” #ExpandED2012.

Summary of Twitter #timechat

CBASS hosted a lively discussion on expanded learning with Elena Silva, Senior Policy Analyst at Education Sector and co-author of the report Reimagining the School Day: More Time for Learning, yesterday afternoon. We joined the discussion and posted a transcript here.

Some of the points Elena made during the chat:

• There’s huge variation in approaches to expanding learning time. The National Center on Time and Learning database cites over 1,000 that have added at least 30 minutes to the day.

• An extra 30 minutes of remediation a day is not better learning. It is adding instructional time, which can be good or bad.

• Partnerships and principals are key to expanding learning time. Good partnerships need clear shared goals and expectations, individual objectives, shared data about kids’ well-being, and strong leaders.

• We need a broader set of outcomes for students if we incorporate a youth development framework into expanded learning.

• Funding streams for expanded learning time are varied and complicated. But schools and organizations can braid funding sources (private and public) to support their work.

• Expanded learning time has never been systematically tracked or studied. We don’t really know cost or long-term effect.

• Expanded learning time for tweens is “a study waiting to happen.”

• Time is a resource, a tool that can be used well if you have the right foundation. First, you need leaders with vision, educators who are great for and with kids (in and out of school), and a strong curriculum. Time can’t be the vision, or the goal, not even an objective. It’s a way to improve what’s good, if it’s used well.

Participants also shared the following resources with the group:

• A new report that looks at the secrets behind successful charter schools, which include more time for learning. (via @expanding_time)

• Our report on how schools and community partners can draw on diverse funding streams to support expanded learning time.

• A Wallace Foundation report on Making Summer Count. (via @CBASS_National)

• Another Wallace report that profiles promising approaches to data sharing, Hours of Opportunity. (via @jessicadonner)

We found that the hour went by way too quickly, so please help us keep the discussion going by continuing to use the #timechat hashtag. Thanks @CBASS_National, @EducationSector, and @WallaceFdn for getting it started.