This New York Times article explores the ways in which colleges separate “superinvolved parents” from their children on move-in day.
A company called Ultrinsic is making it possible for students to win money by betting on their grades at 36 colleges. Students can be rewarded for earning A’s or take out grade insurance if they think they will not do well in a class. Is it wise to motivate students with monetary rewards? Is betting on grades even legal?
In her recent American Prospect article, Sara Mead argues that, in terms of educational reform, we should shift our focus toward early literacy rather than older students.
“Why focus on early literacy? Because whether children can read well by the end of third grade is a strong predictor of how they are likely to do in the future — in school, at work, and as parents and citizens. The facts are sobering. Children who do not learn to read proficiently by the end of third grade are unlikely ever to read at grade level. These youngsters are at high risk for later school failure and behavioral problems, for dropping out of high school, and for a host of negative life outcomes once they reach adulthood. For example, poor reading skills in the early elementary grades are highly correlated with later delinquency. According to the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 38 percent of all youth in juvenile detention read below the fourth-grade level.”
Students who do not learn to read by the end of third grade are at a severe disadvantage, as this is the age when students stop “learning to read” and start “reading to learn.” These same students may be act out and create behavioral problems within the classroom precisely because they lack the literacy skills necessary to succeed at higher levels of education. The article is a good reminder of the importance of developing early literacy skills and making reading a primary focus within the curriculum.
According to a recent MDRC study, small non-selective high schools are graduating more students than their larger counterparts. From the study’s overview, here is a brief rundown of the findings:
However, Clara Hempbell of the New School’s blah blah blah wonders whether the “collateral damage” caused by opening these small schools outweighs the possible benefits. “As the large dysfunctional schools were closed, thousands of students were diverted to remaining large schools.” With the increase in enrollment came a decrease in attendance and graduation rates.
Follow this story in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Houston Chronicle.
According to a recent New York Times article, public documents reveal that many charter schools are engaging in questionable financial practices, opening them up to greater scrutiny.
“During its first years of operation, the Niagara Charter School in Niagara Falls spent thousands of dollars on plane tickets, restaurant meals and alcohol, and more than $100,000 on no-bid consulting contracts. Yet the school’s teachers resorted to organizing a fund-raiser to buy playground equipment.
When the Roosevelt Children’s Academy, a charter school on Long Island, fired its management company after paying it more than $1 million a year, it hired two of the school’s board members as new managers — and paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And in the Bronx, the Family Life Charter School pays $400,000 annually to rent classroom space from the Latino Pastoral Action Center, a “Christ-centered holistic ministry” led by the Rev. Raymond Rivera. Mr. Rivera also happens to be the school’s founder.”
Continue reading here.
The results of the NAEP national reading test are in, and while fourth graders showed significant improvement on reading tests, eighth graders did not. Despite the fourth graders gains, the scores are still strikingly low, on city-, state-, and nationwide levels.
Nationally, only 31 percent of fourth- grade public school students are at or above the “proficient” level in reading, a standard defined by the test as “competency over challenging subject matter.” Sixty-five percent are at or above the “basic” level, with partial mastery of knowledge and skills that are considered fundamental.
Among fourth graders in New York State public schools, 36 percent are at or above the proficient level in reading, and 71 percent are at or above the basic level — both better than the national results for public school students. In the city, 29 percent of fourth graders are at or above proficiency, and 62 percent are at or above the basic level — both figures that are below the national percentages, but better than those of many other urban school systems.
To read more, follow this link to the New York Times article discussing the test results.
A recent Time magazine article by Amanda Ripley discusses a study performed by Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. to determine whether financial incentives really improve student performance. The experiment involved four different payment schemes implemented in four different cities. Fourth and seventh graders in New York were paid $25 and $50 respectively for good test scores, but the test showed no change on scores over the control group. In Chicago, 9th graders were paid different amounts for each grade they received–$50 for an A, $35 for a B, and $20 for a C. There, students received better grades than the control group, but standardized test performance did not improve. In Washington D.C., “middle schoolers [were] paid for a portfolio of five different metrics, including attendance and good behavior.” These students performed better on standardized reading tests. In Dallas, second graders were paid $2 for each book they read and successfully completed a test on. The Dallas experiment seems to have been the most successful, with students showing significant improvement on standardized reading comprehension tests. The article is lengthy, but worth reading for more specific details as well as Fryer’s overall conclusions.
From New York Magazine, here is a short article offering insight into what goes on inside admissions rooms at small liberal arts colleges.
A recent article for the New Republic argues for common education standards as a means to improve the U.S. public school system.
Thanks in part to this left-right alliance, attempts to formulate common standards died in their inchoate phases under both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. And even the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001–the most ambitious federal attempt ever to hold failing schools accountable–left the question of what, exactly, students should be learning up to individual states.
The results have been depressing. Not wanting their schools to be labeled as failing, many states have watered down their standards–a trend that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has correctly called “a race to the bottom.” Expectations for students are therefore often embarrassingly low. Consider that, last year, 86 percent of New York eighth-graders were proficient in math based on the state’s exam–but only 34 percent were proficient according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is given to students nationwide. A system that could produce that kind of statistical gap is clearly one in need of reform.
Surprisingly, reform is coming from individual states themselves, 48 of whom participated in drafting a set of more rigorous standards, along with the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. These standards would be applied to all states who voluntarily adopt them. The editors of the New Republic see this as a “seismic shift in education policy.” For more, read on here.
From the Wall Street Journal, here is an article to remind you that rejection from your top choice school isn’t the end of the world.
Both Warren Buffett and “Today” show host Meredith Vieira say that while being rejected by the school of their dreams was devastating, it launched them on a path to meeting life-changing mentors. Harold Varmus, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, says getting rejected twice by Harvard Medical School, where a dean advised him to enlist in the military, was soon forgotten as he plunged into his studies at Columbia University’s med school. For other college rejects, from Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and entrepreneur Ted Turner to broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw, the turndowns were minor footnotes, just ones they still remember and will talk about.
Continue reading here.
