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Educational Crisis: Race to the Top

By: Deborah Cahill

Here’s another installment in the ‘Race to the Top’ feud.  Some states, including California, are being punished by withholding much needed funds because we do not buy into this much flawed program.  When are they going to realize that this is not an answer to the nation’s educational crisis.  The following articles actually came from AOL and I thought they were worth sharing.  Even if you have your child in private school, the plight of public schools is the plight of all us who live here.  As goes your school system, so goes your area real estate.

“The U.S. Dept. of Education “Race to the Top” program aims to improve public education by targeting four specific areas and thereby advancing reform. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is the mastermind behind this incentive program that rewards states that implement certain education measures and standards (usually standardized test scores in math and English), and punishes states that refuse to adhere to these reform measures.

Duncan is in charge of allocating $4.3 billion in education funds. States must participate in the “Race to the Top” competition if they want some of that money. For example, Tennessee and Delaware both agreed to be held to the testing standards outlined by the program, so they were awarded federal funds to help improve their public school systems. States that decline to be part of the program will not see any federal dollars for education.”

Fighting back

“On April 6, BAMN held a press conference on the “Mobilization Against ‘Race to the Top” at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. The press conference was attended by local educators and activists, as well as representatives from several of the contingents who plan to attend the April 10th March on Washington to Defend Public Education from California, Michigan, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania.

These five states share a serious crisis in their public school systems. Plagued by financial concerns, these states are leaders in teacher firings, the growth of charter schools, and the use of standardized test scores as the only measuring stick of a student’s potential. Stern says: “It is going to be the welfare zone of education. It will just be condemning; education used to be the great leveler, and now with privatization, the competition pits everyone against each other and destroys communities.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Deborah Cahill

Recess: The Importance of Play

By: Deborah Cahill

This study ties play time to success in the classroom.  This makes perfect sense.  Even as adults with longer so called “attention spans,” when we are attending lectures or involved in classroom studies, how long does it take before we get “figidty” and want a break!  Children need to be alert and fresh.  Sometimes it is even appropriate to get the class up (whether they are elementary or college!) and have them do stretches or some other physical activity to re-focus their attention.  I don’t think we really need a study to tell us this, unless they are making a case for putting recess back in schools as the favorite class of the day!

Leading the News

Most Elementary School Principals Say Recess Positively Impacts Achievement, Poll Shows.

The Christian Science Monitor (2/4, Paulson) reported that a new Gallup survey shows “more than 80 percent of elementary-school principals believe that recess has a positive impact on academic achievement.” Also, according to “two-thirds of the principals” polled, “students listen better and are more focused in class” after recess. “The findings support a growing wave of educators who are pushing to restore the place of recess in schools and, in some cases, to improve its quality.” Schools in some cities such as “Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston…have dropped recess completely,” amid budget cuts and an increasingly intense focus on test preparation.

Nancy Shute wrote in the US News and World Report (2/4) On Parenting blog, “Recess has almost disappeared from the curriculum at many schools, edged out by more math and reading work as schools push to raise scores on standardized tests.” But more and more research “shows that adding more play to the day, not less, improves the likelihood of better test scores and behavior.” However, Shute adds, “The news wasn’t all good. The principals said most of their discipline problems happened during a recess or lunch break and said that they would like to have more staff to monitor the playground, better equipment, and training in playground management.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Deborah Cahill, Recess: The Importance of Play

The Realities of “No Child Left Behind”

By: Deborah Cahill

The New York Times (2/1, A1, Dillon) reports on its front page that the Obama administration “is proposing a sweeping overhaul” of NCLB “and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.” However, the Times adds that the “administration is not planning to abandon the law’s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.” The Times notes that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “foreshadowed the elimination of the 2014 deadline in a September speech, referring to it as a ‘utopian goal,’ and administration officials have since made clear that they want the deadline eliminated.”

Finally some common sense when it comes to this legislation.  NCLB (No Child Left Behind) is a wonderful in theory but it lacks the realistic ability to enforce it.  You cannot expect schools in “School Improvement” to miraculously catch up to schools in areas where the average household has at least one parent with a college degree just because the state is requiring higher test scores!  It just is not possible.

Realistic goals need to be set so that we are seeing steady improvement and at the same time are not setting goals which increase each year making it impossible for these schools to ever get out of School Improvement.  This encourages and allows the best students from the School Improvement schools to leave to go to other schools which are not in school improvement, hence making it more difficult for the SI school to improve test scores because their best students are no longer in attendance to help pull up their scores! It has been a “catch 22″ which has caused a great deal of distress and unfair pressure on the SI schools.  Maybe this new understanding on the part of the government will finally help public education and take some pressure off the schools who are drowning under this deadline.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Deborah Cahill, NCBL, No Child Left Behind

Teacher’s Say Law Hampers Creativity

By: Deborah Cahill

As a secondary school teacher in California for a number of years and as a classroom teacher for over 25 years I can at “test” to the fact that one of the major complaints teachers have is that we spend far too much time teaching to the test and then taking even more time out from our regular courses of study to complete the tests!  It has gotten to the point where we loose weeks each year on tests which teachers feel are unnecessary and really devalue our time.  As a result, the amount of material we love to teach and which excites the students, and which we have been able to cover, seems to diminish each year.  Here is a brief article that addresses that concern.

California’s Top Teachers Say Law Hampers Classroom Creativity, According To Study.

California’s Press Enterprise (1/26, Straehley) reported, “The best teachers don’t like the effects of the No Child Left Behind act, saying it hampers creativity in the classroom and makes it harder to teach students to love learning,” according to a UC Riverside study published in Policy Matters today. Researchers “surveyed 740 national board certified teachers in California” and “found that 84 percent reported overall unfavorable attitudes about the” law. Many teachers said that “too much class time is devoted to teaching what’s on the state tests, and there’s little time left for creative and fun lessons.” Titled, “Does the No Child Left Behind Act Help or Hinder K-12 Education,” the reports also says that “teachers did see value in the focus and high expectations set by the act, but” did not see NCLB as helping students reach those standards.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Deborah Cahill, secondary school teacher in California

Study Shows Girls Less Engaged In Science Than Boys

An Educational Report

By: Deborah Cahill

As a high school teacher and Realtor, I thought our readers would enjoy an educational report.  I have a masters in Secondary Administration and Supervision so this really caught my eye.  Here’s what I found:

The AP (1/20, Sutschek) reports that according to “a study by two Northern Illinois University professors…high school girls are bored, disengaged, and stressed in science classes when compared with boys.” Co-principal investigators, Jennifer Schmidt and M. Cecil Smith “looked at 244 high school students and 13 science teachers.” Responding to a pager “students immediately reported what they were doing and thinking, rating their engagement, enjoyment, anxiety and concentration levels.” According to Schmidt, boys and girls put forth equal efforts into lessons, “but for whatever reason the engagement switch is not being flipped for the girls, in spite of the fact that they get similar grades,” said Schmidt. Smith added that girls often rated “lectures and completing work at their seats as the most engaging classroom activities.” The researchers cited “societal expectations and the role of the teacher” as possible “causes for the gender differences.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Deborah Cahill, ewingsir

Attention Pet Lovers

This is pretty  simple… Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!

By: Deborah Cahill

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting  enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of  getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site  and click on the purple box ‘fund food for animals for free’. This  doesn’t cost you a thing.
Their corporate  sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food  to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here’s the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

For more information, go to: The animal rescue

AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10  FRIENDS!

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Animal Rescue Site, Deborah Cahill