Professional Readings
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Professional Readings includes reviews of recent publications and highlights of reports on current issues that affect schools. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
National Reports on Education
by Joan Platz
School Finance Redesign Project Issues Final Report
Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools was released on December 1, 2008. Researchers at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education led this 6-year study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study included the work of over 30 research projects conducted by universities throughout the nation on federal, state, and local school funding formulas and mechanisms. Ohio’s school funding system was studied as part of an in depth study of four states, including North Carolina, Texas, and Washington. The National Working Group on Funding Student Learning, chaired by Jacob E. Adams, was also convened to review the findings of the research projects. This panel issued its own recommendations in October 2008.
The final report includes recommendations for policymakers to revamp school finance systems in order to connect dollars to student achievement and also support innovation and continuous improvement. According to the final report, the current system of funding schools does not target resources to achieve results based on research and data, and so the question “How much should we be spending?” cannot be answered.
Link to final report > (PDF)
Panel Recommends Expanding NAEP
A study conducted by a National Assessment Governing Board panel of experts, chaired by Michael Krist, recommends that the 12th-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam include a way to assess student academic preparation for college and work in math and reading. The NAEP Governing Board, Mary Crovo interim executive director, approved the recommendations at their November 2008 meeting. The approval will allow studies and research to be conducted to determine how skills for college can be reflected in future NAEP scores. The recommendations call for information on student preparation for college and work to be reported on The Nation’s Report Card starting in 2010. More information >
Study on How Poverty Affects the Brain Published
A study to be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience by researchers Mark Kishiyama and Robert Knight at the University of California-Berkeley shows the effects of poverty, such as malnutrition, stress, anxiety, and toxic environments, on the brain functions of children. The study examined the brains of low-income and high-income 9- and 10-year-olds using an electroencephalograph and found that the brains of the low-income children showed damage equivalent to a stroke victim, including lesions in the prefrontal cortex, which controls higher order thinking and problem solving. This damage can affect the ability of children to develop language, remember details, and study on their own, but can also be reversed. More information >
Middle School Preparation Key to Student Future Success
A study was released on December 11, 2008 called The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness before High School by ACT. The study found that middle school preparation was an important part of the future success of students in high school and college. According to the study, which tracked 216,000 students who had taken the ACT preparation exam, less than 20 percent of eighth-grade students are academically on track to be successful in high school and college. More information >
States Focus on High School Reform
Members of the New England Secondary School Consortium, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, announced recently an initiative to create high schools that are community learning centers and provide students with a variety of ways to demonstrate 21st century academic achievement and skills. The initiative will be coordinated by the Great Schools Partnership, David Ruff co-director, at the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute in Portland, Maine, and is being supported by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More information >
Status of Charter Schools
The Center on Reinventing Public Education released in December 2008 its fourth annual report on charter schools, Hopes, Fears, & Reality; A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools by Robin J. Lake for the National Charter School Research Project. According to the report, the achievement of students enrolled in charter schools is promising overall, but highly varied; charter schools distinguish themselves from traditional public schools in their educational strategies and offerings; college-prep charters are an important new development for inner-city students; charter schools are delivering new models for special education; and a more sophisticated understanding of the diverse constituent demand is needed to effectively develop the charter sector. More information >
Americans Fail History Quiz
The results of a study called Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions were released on November 20, 2008 by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). This is the third study conducted by ISI to measure the civic literacy skills of college students. Another study was also conducted that includes the results of a survey of the civic literacy skills of selected adults. According to the results of the second survey, 71% of Americans failed the civic literacy test, with an overall average score of 49 percent. The ISI urges colleges and universities to reevaluate their curricula and standards of accountability,and better prepare graduates for the responsibilities of informed citizenship. More information >
Organizations Recommend International Best Practices
The International Benchmarking Advisory Group, co-chaired by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, and Intel chairman of the board Craig Barrett, released on December 19, 2008 a report called Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education. The advisory group convened by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc., includes governors, state commissioners of education, representatives from the business community, researchers, and government officials.
The report provides states with a “roadmap” for benchmarking their K-12 education systems against top performing nations and describes what the federal government and states must do to ensure that U.S. students receive a world-class education and opportunities for college and careers. The report urges the federal government and states to adopt best practices from other countries in the areas of standards, accountability, educator workforce, and assessments.
The Advisory Group identified the following five steps that states should take in order to provide a world-class education system for students:
- Upgrade state standards by adopting a common core of internationally benchmarked standards in math and language arts for grades K-12
- Leverage states’ collective influence to ensure textbooks, digital media, curricula, and assessments are aligned to internationally benchmarked standards and draw on lessons from high-performing nations
- Revise state policies for recruiting, preparing, developing, and supporting teachers and school leaders to reflect the “human capital” practices of top-performing nations and states around the world
- Hold schools and systems accountable through monitoring, interventions, and support to ensure consistently high performance, drawing upon international best practices
- Measure state-level education performance globally by examining student achievement and attainment in an international context to ensure that students are receiving the education they need to compete in the 21st century economy
Nonprofit EMOs Increase
A new study released on December 23, 2008 called Profiles of Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: 2007-2008, prepared by Gary Miron and Jessica Urschel, reports that the number of schools run by nonprofit Education Management Organizations (EMOs) is increasing. According to the report, there are 83 nonprofit EMOs operating in 24 states and managing 488 schools: 13 large ones operating 10 or more schools; 34 medium-sized ones operating 4-9 schools; and 36 small ones operating 3 or fewer schools. The largest nonprofit EMO is Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which operates 57 charter schools. California, Texas, Arizona, and Ohio have the largest number of nonprofit EMOs. For-profit EMOs operate approximately 533 schools, which are mostly primary schools, which are less costly to run than middle or high schools.
The report includes a profile of the EMOs, information about the name and location of the schools they operate, and the number of students that they affect. Modeled after reports profiling for-profit EMOs annually compiled by Alex Molnar of Arizona State University, this report was released by the Educational Leadership, Research & Technology Department at Western Michigan University’s College of Education, along with the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University. More information >
