Showing Real Promise

There's an excellent story in the New York Times about the Kalamazoo Promise. It's a nice overview, and it raises some interesting questions about incentives for learning and about the achievement gap.

Results

Community High's lottery results have been posted. It's a game of chance.

Reports are that tomorrow morning (2/16) at 11 a.m., when Gov. Snyder unveils his budget, he'll be unveiling 4% cuts in public school per-pupil funding. Is that a game of chance? I don't think so, but there sure will be losers. It's bad news for struggling schools and let's face it, all schools will be struggling. When your school's classes have 38 students in a class, and the rooms are too crowded to fit all the desks, you will know why.

Which brings me to the P-16 question. You know, should we be funding preschool through college? Because I've also heard that part of the proposal is taking money for community colleges from the School Aid Fun. And my answer is: yes, we should fund P-16, but not at the expense of the mandated K-12 education.

After school break, I'm hoping to get to the subject I know you've been waiting for: evaluating our local charter schools. So let me say this--I don't have any direct experience with any of the charters--although I do have indirect experiences with some of them (in other words, some of my friends have used them). If you want to send me a summary of some of your direct experiences with local (county) charter schools, to share, let me know.

Bits and More Bits

A new private high school, for high-functioning autistic students, is opening up. It's "faith-based." Based on the name, Veritas Christi, I would say it's Christian.

The East-Cross blog is reporting some truly alarming potential state budget cuts for the coming fiscal year. And we thought this year was bad.

The Saline High School principal reports, on Twitter, that the school honored 251 students with straight As at a recent event. Apparently, that is 13.6% of the student body. I know that I was in the top 10% of my high school graduating class, and I didn't have all As. Proof of grade inflation. Yet I'm not necessarily opposed.

I've written about early childhood education, and now--this just in: Washtenaw County Head Start is beginning the enrollment process for the 2010-2011 school year with Early Bird Registration, Wednesday, February 17 from 9 am-4 pm at the Head Start Grantee office located at 1661 Leforge Road in Ypsilanti. This is for families living in the Ypsilanti or Lincoln school districts, and for families living in Washtenaw County that are working full time or who are full time students.  Families must bring a copy of the child’s Birth Certificate, Proof of Income, and Proof of Residence.  If the child has a current physical and dental exam, families should bring those as well. Families will be served on a first come first serve basis.  For more information call 484-7119.  

David Jesse (along with some others) has been doing some extensive reporting on the Ann Arbor schools budget, and a limited amount of reporting on some of the other schools. The reporting is good; it is annoying that it is not easy to find all of the articles. Some--but not all--of them are under School Spending Report.

Noting the passing of: 

J.D. Salinger--Yes, I had to read Catcher in the Rye in middle school. I didn't like it. I tried again when one of my kids had to read it, and I still didn't like it. It seemed very male, and I really didn't like that he spelled crummy, crumby. Many years later, that still bugs me. 

Mary Daly--I was introduced to her writing in college, and it was hard! Beyond God the Father and Gyn/Ecology have hugely influenced feminist and environm

ental thought, and they were eye-opening for me. Talk about being a boundary-pusher! She was one. Howard Zinn--OK, I confess that I never made it all the way through A People's History of the United States, but I was happy to meet a teacher who used it in her social studies class. He had a lot of good ideas, and shared them in an accessible way. And until I read his obituary I didn't know he was a playwright, too. (That is the nice thing about obituaries. You find out interesting things about people.)

I have added the blog Foster Parenting Adventures to the blogroll on the right. The author is a school psychologist in an urban school district, and she recently became a foster parent, which is something I've thought about doing. I'd start reading with the first post.

Meditations on Fairness and Equity

Probably every parent has had the experience of a child saying, "That's not fair!" while alluding to why you let Jane watch an extra hour of t.v., or why the coach let Joey's friend Mark play 4 innings in baseball and Joey only played 3 innings. But maybe Jane volunteered to rake the neighbor's lawn. Maybe Mark hasn't missed any practices. Or maybe there was no rationale for it.

Probably every teacher has had the experience of having to decide when one student should get "special treatment" when it is denied to another student (for example, giving permission to turn in a paper late to one student and not another). In grading--who really deserves the A? A student who has never been able to write more than two sentences, and suddenly writes three paragraphs in ninth grade, even though most students can write three pages? The student who tries something she has never done before, and fails at it, because she refused to take the safe route? The student who takes the safe route and does exactly what is requested but doesn't challenge himself? What is fair? What is equitable?

We can transfer these same questions to funding. What is fair and equitable to students may not be fair and equitable to taxpayers. What is fair may not be equitable, and what is equitable might not be fair.

Is it fair that kids in Traverse City have a much lower per-pupil allocation than kids in Ann Arbor?
Is it equitable that kids in Traverse City have a much lower per-pupil allocation than kids in Ann Arbor?

Is it fair that the majority of taxes raised for schools in the Ann Arbor School District get sent out of the district?
Is it equitable that the majority of taxes raised for schools in the Ann Arbor School District get sent out of the district?

Is it fair that each district can't choose to raise or lower its own taxes for schools?
Is it equitable that each district can't choose to raise or lower its own taxes for schools?

Is it fair that some PTOs are able to raise a lot of money for their schools, and others are not?
Is it equitable that some PTOs are able to raise a lot of money for their schools, and others are not?

You get the idea. Fairness and equity are often not the same. And by the way, I'm not about to argue that we should always come down on the side of equity over fairness, or fairness over equity. I am going to argue that we should make that discussion public.

On another note: 

If you listen to, or read, the American Radioworks piece that I just wrote about, you will find an astounding statistic. In the Perry School Study, the estimated Return On Investment in avoided costs (for instance, paying for someone while they are in jail) is an astounding 16%.

So while our state legislators are mired in mud, looking at the next six months only, I would say that--not only are they unable to come to any agreements, but honestly--they are missing the boat entirely. The payoff in education is a long-term one. But it can be big.

Cool Early Childhood Research In Our Backyard

There was a terrific American Radioworks (Michigan Radio) story today on early childhood education. Of special interest, it features High Scope Research Center and Perry Nursery School (where a lot of the first research on preschool was done), and it also features Van Loggins, an AAPS physical education teacher at Ann Arbor Open.

The story is called Early Lessons. 
Scroll down on the Early Lessons page to: download the podcast, listen online, or read the transcript.

This is a story about special education, and it's a story about race. It's also about the power of a few people to right wrongs and make a difference in people's lives.
One of the key lessons learned--the preschool made a difference, but they don't really know why. (Theories abound.) Well, for a long time, nobody knew why aspirin reduced fever--but people knew that it did.

Another key lesson learned--there is a difference between low and high quality preschools, and currently, middle class white kids are most likely to go to the high quality preschools.

Let's Hear It For Ishpeming!

Ishpeming, you may or may not know, is a town outside of Marquette.
I've always loved the town's name, and I have met a few interesting people who come from there.

The state's budget negotiations are heating up. October 1 is the deadline. Considering that schools needed to have balanced budgets this summer, and the school year has already started, that's not all that helpful.
MLive reports that the Democrats are going to roll over and agree to the Republican Senate's proposed cuts--which include drastic cuts to early childhood education, health care, and yes--school funding.
There is a coalition opposing these cuts, and I don't think it's an accident that the coalition includes the Small and Rural Schools organization, the Michigan Association of Pupil Transportation, the School Community Health Alliance, and the Michigan Education Association.

In any case: Senator Prusi, from Ishpeming, is standing up and saying NO. Thank you Ishpeming.

In a related vein: Jack Lessenberry's last few columns--related to the state budget--are also worth reading, if you don't catch them on NPR.

Last, but not least: here is the list from MLive of the proposed education cuts--but don't make the mistake of thinking that cuts to low-income families, cuts to health care, and to other areas won't affect education too, because they will.

EDUCATION:

• Cut K-12 school funding by $110 per pupil, dropping the lowest foundation grant to $7,206 per student: $174 million. The state would need to get a federal waiver to make the cuts; without the OK, it would risk losing millions of dollars in federal recovery money.

• Eliminate the Michigan Promise Grant college scholarship: $140 million.

• Eliminate grants to K-12 schools with declining enrollments: $20 million.

• Eliminate adolescent health centers in schools: $5 million.

• Essentially eliminate the school readiness program: $104 million.

• Reduce adult education funding: $2.4 million.

• Essentially eliminate the Great Parents Great Start ISD programs: $5 million.

• Eliminate money to set up small high schools: $8 million.

• Reduce vocational education funding by 10 percent: $2 million.

• Eliminate math remediation grants: $1 million.

• Eliminate Math/Science Centers and Health/Science Middle Colleges: $6 million.

• Eliminate state funding for the Michigan Youth ChalleNGe Academy, a voluntary quasi-military residential program run by the Michigan National Guard for high school dropouts or near-dropouts: $1 million.

• Reduce funding for some college financial aid programs and eliminate others: $48 million.

• Stop reimbursing community colleges for property tax revenue lost because of renaissance zones: $4 million.

Early Childhood Education Advocacy

There is a lot of evidence that when we provide significant early childhood education, that the benefits down the road are huge. That is the rationale behind Head Start, Early On, and lots of other early childhood education programs. In fact, some of the important early research was done in Ypsilanti, at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation.
To put it very bluntly: pay now for early childhood interventions, or pay later for for corrections, special education, and employment interventions.

Here are a couple of alerts, put out by the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children.

State Level:
Dramatic cuts to critical early childhood programs are under final discussion in the state legislature. All state funded preschool and parent education programs have been eliminated in a bill recently passed by the state Senate in Lansing.If the Michigan House concurs with the Senate and the Governor signs it into law, the future of young children and all of us involved in early childhood programs are at risk. We must act now to make sure that these proven, cost effective programs continue. Over 2,500 concerned citizens who believed that early childhood programs need continued funding signed a petition from MiAEYC to reject the Senate version of the school aid bill for FY 2010 (HB 4447). Each legislator was sent the petition. If you did not sign the MiAEYC petition, please contact your legislators directly to let them know you want to support the early childhood programs in your community.

Federal Level:
On July 21 the House Education and Labor Committee will mark up the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3221). Title IV of this Act authorizes the Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new federal funding stream to promote State early care and education systems for children birth to five.

Please encourage your representatives to support this legislation. Committee members from Michigan include Dale Kildee <http://www.house.gov/kildee/contact.shtml> , Vernon Ehlers <http://www.house.gov/ehlers/contact_vern.shtml> , and Peter Hoekstra <http://hoekstra.house.gov/Contact/> . If you live in their districts, please take action.

Representative George Miller (D-7th CA), Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, introduced <http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/07/chairman-miller-introduces-leg.shtml> the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3221). President Obama called for a new Zero-to-Five Plan on the campaign trail as well as in his Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request. This new legislation builds on that proposal by providing $1 billion a year for 10 years in mandatory funding for the Early Learning Challenge Fund, using savings obtained through streamlining the federal student loan program.

To view a summary of the legislation, click here <http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/SAFRA-FactSheet.pdf> .

For more details on investments in early education, click here. <http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/SAFRA-EarlyLearning.pdf>

For more details, go to http://edlabor.house.gov/

Several national organizations are supporting this bill -- they have information about the bill and connections to the Congressional delegation on their websites.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: http://afscme.org/

Center for Law and Social Policy: http://www.childcareandearlyed.clasp.org/ <http://www.childcareandearlyed.clasp.org/%20>

Early Care and Education Consortium: http://www.ececonsortium.org/federal_ece_legislation.php

First Five Years Fund: http://ffyf.org/

National Association for the Education of Young Children: http://www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/updates <http://www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/07_17_09>

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies: http://www.naccrra.org/policy/early-learning-challenge-grants

National Association for Family Child Care: http://nafcc.org <http://nafcc.org/>

National Head Start Association: http://www.nhsa.org/

National Women's Law Center: http://nwlc.org/display.cfm?section=childcare

ZERO TO THREE: http://www.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/ELCF_Overview.pdf?docID=9161 <http://www.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/ELCF_Overview.pdf?docID=9161%20>