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SEO Ed Digest
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Vol. 2, Issue 9
September 2005
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Education News
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The State Education Office does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the SEO Ed Digest.
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As this report coincides with the beginning of the school year, we focus on the full breadth of educational issues, with special emphasis on standards-based educational reform. You can read about success stories in Arizona, Colorado and Oregon; examples of work in progress as reflected by Washington DC’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP report); and ways in which the reform movement is changing education finance. The digest also touches on issues related to charter schools in Washington DC, alternative educational standards for students with disabilities, training, curriculum development and the national crisis in high school completion.
Interactive Resources
July 2005
News
August 2005
Reports
August 2005
July 2005
February 2005
2004
November 2004
 
August 2005
A Third of DC Principals Are New - Extraordinary Turnover Reflects Retirements, Dismissals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201340.html
Washington Post reports that forty-four DC public schools -- about a third of the schools in the system -- have a new principal this year, according to an announcement by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey. School officials said the turnover is unprecedented and reflects a high number of retirements and an effort to weed out principals who were not performing adequately.
Test Scores Show State's Educational Gap Narrowing
August 2005
Six Low-Ranked Schools Running Out of Time - One Year Left for Progress
August 2005
August 2005
Alternative Achievement Standards for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/altguidance.pdf * The Department of Education (DOE) published a regulation on December 9, 2003, authorizing the development of alternative achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities that could then in turn be used for making adequate yearly progress (AYP) decisions. Subsequently, DOE indicated that it would issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) allowing certain students with disabilities to be assessed on modified achievement standards. While that work is ongoing, this document provides guidance on alternative achievement standards for students with the most significant disabilities.
August 2005
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) uses data from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to look at the prevalence of various professional development activities among public school teachers during the 1999-2000 school year. The report finds that 73% of teachers participated in training focused on teaching methods while 59% underwent training in the content of the subject matter they taught. A majority of teachers reported receiving eight or fewer hours of training in either subject matter content or teaching methods.
August 2005
Providing Quality Choice Options in Education
http://preview.nga.org/Files/pdf/EDUCATIONCHOICE.PDF *
The Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota (CSC) and the National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) investigate the number of school choice strategies governors are using to improve student achievement and raise graduation rates. The report reviews a variety of state choice policies, and also features research and analysis by proponents and critics of school choice. It highlights several innovative school choice policies and includes numerous key recommendations for governors to consider when they create or refine new or existing school choice policies, including charter schools, vouchers, tax credits, distance-learning opportunities and inter- and intra-district enrollment.
August 2005
http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/feat/72?eb
WestEd, a non profit research, development and service agency, follows the progress of Mesquite Elementary of the Vail School District of Arizona to illustrate the achievements of the Vail School District, unmatched by any other district in Arizona. In 2002-03 Mesquite Elementary was labeled by the Arizona Department of Education as a school where student test scores were passable but far short of exemplary. For the school to increase its standing, it would have to not only address the recently updated Arizona Academic Standards (2003) but would also have to achieve a higher passing score for the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS). Two years later, Mesquite became a role model for school improvement: The percentage of eighth-grade students meeting or exceeding the standards in writing rose from 31 to 84%, and the percentage of eighth graders meeting or exceeding math standards rose from 18 to 54%.
August 2005
July 2005
Elementary/Secondary School Teaching Among Recent College Graduates: 1994 and 2001
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005161.pdf *
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) investigates whether graduates who differed in demographic and undergraduate academic characteristics also differed in terms of teaching and teaching-related behaviors as of 2001. The report finds that 12 percent of graduates had taught in an elementary/secondary school in the year after they graduated –up from 10 percent of 1993 graduates, that teaching was more common among women, among graduates of public and non-doctorate-granting institutions, and among graduates with higher cumulative undergraduate GPAs but lower college entrance examination scores.
February 2005
What do we know? Seeking effective math and science instruction
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311150.pdf *
The Urban Institute attempt to identify math and science curricula and professional development models at the middle and high school level considered effective based on their success in increasing student achievement. Effective mathematics curricula in middle and high school may be either traditional or integrative (standards-based). The Urban Institute find that effective science curricula should be inquiry-based rather than traditional, and that effective professional development programs are those that focus on content rather than format.
January 2005
Quality Counts 2005: No Small Change –Targeting Money Towards Student Performance
http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2005/01/06/index.html
Education Week looks at how state policymakers are looking for new and better ways to finance public education. Historically, states have focused on how to distribute money equitably across districts, but now, states are asking what it would take to raise all students to state standards. 31 states are considering major changes in how they pay for education or allot money to school districts. Sixteen states are engaged in litigation challenging the school finance systems they now have in place. Lawsuits in 20 other states have been decided or settled in the past five years, often in the plaintiffs’ favor.
2004
Who Graduates? Who Doesn't?
A Statistical Portrait of Public High School Graduation, Class of 2001
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410934_WhoGraduates.pdf *
This study by the Urban Institute illustrates that the nation is in the midst of a serious, broad-based, and (until recently) unrecognized crisis in high school completion. The national graduation rate is 68 percent, with nearly one-third of all public high school students failing to graduate. Tremendous racial gaps are found for graduation rates. Males graduate from high school at a rate 8 percent lower than female students. Graduation rates for students who attend school in high poverty, racially segregated, and urban school districts lag from 15 to 18 percent behind their peers.
November 2004
Colorado Closing the Achievement Gap Commission Interim Report
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdecare/clg_download/Interim_Final_CTAG_Report.pdf *
The Colorado Department of Education offers guidance to schools, school districts, state agency staff, and lawmakers to make substantial progress in closing the achievement gap. Recommendations and actions steps are suggested concerning data and assessment, expectations, higher education, administrator/teacher qualification and professional development, parent/community involvement, and best practices.
October 1999
Comparing Math Scores of Black Students in DC's Public and Catholic Schools
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=34780
We highlight this 1999 report to focus on an issue that continues to require urgent attention today. In 1999, the Center for Data Analysis investigated whether children attending private and parochial schools score higher than their counterparts of similar background on tests that measure cognitive skills. Their report analyzed math scores from the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test taken by African-American fourth- and eighth-grade students in the District of Columbia's public and Catholic schools, and indicated: the typical, or average, African-American eighth-grader in a DC Catholic school performs better in math than 72 percent of his or her public school peers; both fourth- and eighth-grade Catholic school students outperform their public school peers in math achievement.
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