Monday, July 20, 2009

Swine Flu to Return

In the not-so-good news department, federal health officials on Friday predicted that the H1N1 virus will probably "erupt as soon as schools open rather than in October or November." Swine Flu Expected to Return With Opening of School in the New York Times reports that "the swine flu is still circulating in the United States, especially in summer camps." Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “The virus isn’t gone, and we fully expect there will be challenges in the fall.”

Give Teachers Some Control

Eduwonk guestbloggers Joe Graba and Ted Kolderie had an interesting posting Friday in Might Teachers Take On the ‘Quality’ Issues? They write about teachers being in charge:

But it turns out that where they can design the program and make the decisions teachers do accept responsibility for school and student success. Recruitment, assignment, effort, compensation, performance and accountability seem to be handled if anything better in the partnership than in the confrontational boss/worker model.

Summer Fun

I'm having a lot of fun learning how to use my new Canon Digital Rebel XSi and a 55-250mm telephoto lens I picked up recently. At full zoom, the 250mm produces a lot of shake, but I'm really happy with Canon's image stabilization on the lens. I've tried for years to get a really good shot of either a white egret or a blue heron. While the shot below isn't perfect, it turned out yesterday that I got both in the same frame!

Canon XSi and 55-250mm Telephoto Zoom Lens For stunning photography with point and shoot ease, look no further than Canon’s EOS Rebel XSi. The EOS Rebel XSi brings staggering technological innovation to the masses. It features Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System, Live View Function, a powerful DIGIC III Image Processor, plus a new 12.2-megapixel CMOS sensor and is available in a kit with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens with Optical Image Stabilizer. The EOS Rebel XSi’s refined, ergonomic design includes a new 3.0-inch LCD monitor, compatibility with SD and SDHC memory cards and new accessories that enhance every aspect of the photographic experience. Incorporating Canon's Optical Image Stabilizer technology, the Canon 55-250mm telephoto zoom lens captures long distance, low-light shots far better than many comparable lenses, helping you photograph the far-off action of athletes or zoom in for an intimate portrait with a blurred background. The high-zoom-ratio lens is equivalent to a focal length of 88-400mm in the 35mm format (when used on Canon EOS cameras compatible with EF-S lenses). More significantly, the image stabilizer effect creates an equivalent shutter speed of roughly four stops faster than the same size lens without an image stabilizer. In other words, if the slowest shutter speed you can hold a 250mm lens steadily is normally 1/250th of a second, this Canon lens will let you hand-hold shutter speeds as slow as 1/15th of a second. The lens also boasts a UD-glass lens element to correct chromatic aberration to create excellent image quality throughout the zoom range. Delivering an excellent performance at an affordable price for all photographers, the 55-250mm lens carries a one-year warranty.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

More Competition for Public Schools

eSchool News Managing Editor Dennis Pierce has a good editorial in Different Animals about "more competition to the American public school system." He states:

I'm wary of any sweeping arguments about how to improve public education that rely on private-sector business tenets, such as the one that says competition is good for the herd. Policy makers should remember: Schools and businesses are very different animals.

Learning Languages

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily is an interesting read about applying the ability of young children to learn languages to adults. AP medical writer Lauran Neergaard quotes researcher Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington as saying, "We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults."

Thursday, July 23, 2009

School Turnarounds

Education Week's Catherine Gewertz has a good article this week about Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's "call to 'turn around' the nation’s 5,000 worst-performing schools." In Duncan's Call for School Turnarounds Sparks Debate, Gewertz relates that "Few dispute that bold action on low-performing schools has been lacking. But even with new political leadership and money, the job may require more of the field than it can deliver."

Secretary Duncan outlined his plan in a June 22 speech that emphasized "four basic ways to turn around low-performing schools, assuming one year of planning."

1. Under the first option, a new school leader recruits new teachers in the spring. The previous teachers must reapply for their jobs but most don’t get rehired.
2. In the second version, the school’s staff and leadership are replaced, and the school is handed over to a charter management organization or for-profit education management organization.
3. In the third scenario, most of the school’s staff remains, but major steps are taken to revamp school culture. Schools that take this approach must, at a minimum, establish a “rigorous” performance evaluation system, along with more supports, training and mentoring; strengthen curriculum and instruction; increase learning time; and give leadership teams more flexibility to make budgeting, staffing, and calendar decisions.
4. The fourth option closes a school and enrolls students in a better school.

Odds 'n' Ends

I went ahead and added the great egret and blue heron shot from Monday's posting to my free Desktop Photos page today. It's certainly not professional quality, as the reflection from the reservoir on the egret spoils the detail of its feathers. But it does make a nice shot for my rotation of desktop photos on my old twin G5 Mac.

I also shared this photo with Pics4Learning, a resource of free images for educational use. From their "About" statement:

Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Race to...Performance Pay

The Washington Post reports that President Obama will today officially announce the $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" Fund of educational grants to the states. The Post's Michael D. Shear and Nick Anderson report in A $4 Billion Push for Better Schools that the president is "using the promise of more than $4 billion in federal aid -- and the threat of withholding it -- to strong-arm the education establishment to accept more charter schools and performance pay for teachers." States with prohibitions against tying student test scores to teacher evaluation and pay such as California and New York would be ineligible for the grant funding.

Also see:

• New York Times: Administration Takes Aim at State Laws on Teachers by Sam Dillon
• Los Angeles Times: California threatened with loss of funds if it doesn't use test scores in evaluating teachers by Jason Felch and Jason Song
• Washington Post (update): Obama Launches 'Race' for $4 Billion in Education Funds by William Branigin

The announcement ceremony will be available via webcast today at 12:15 P.M. (EDT).

Odds 'n' Ends

As July winds down and teachers begin to prepare to return to the classroom, national reform efforts concerning charter schools, performance and merit pay, tenure, and the role of teachers' unions in the educational process are probably not the center of their efforts or concern. Despite the funding to states from the economic stimulus package, many teachers will be facing larger classes and less support due to local budget cuts and layoffs. Their students will carry with them the effects of homes impacted by job losses, more parent hours at work at lower paying, often multiple jobs, and the other effects of the current national recession.

I'm not sure telling a teacher that "we'll pay you more" for higher test scores is going to do a lot to improve their teaching. I'd guess that many teachers are pretty well maxed out already in their efforts to help their students. And I wonder if those who might be influenced to do more by merit pay aren't the ones that need to be winnowed out of the system anyway.

Another concern I have about the Administration's push for performance/merit pay is that it will be implemented at a local level. While President Obama and Secretary Duncan may believe that an equitable evaluation system including tying student test scores to teacher pay and retention can be done, local school boards are often a morass of political conflict, nepotism, and personal axes to grind. Generally, that's not the group you'd want designing such an evaluation system.

Late Update

I watched the webcast (and added a YouTube video of it above) and found President Obama to be as sincere as always. Both he and Secretary Duncan seem to believe that we can establish a fair standard for identifying good teachers via improved tests and data collection. He talked about bringing teachers into the creation of the evaluation process and stated that tests scores should be used "as just one part of a broader evaluation of teacher performance."

I don't think I've seen a fair, "broader evaluation of teacher performance" yet. I also think both President Obama and Secretary Duncan are being, at best, idealistic, and at worst, naive, about how schools and teacher evaluations work at the local level. His challenge at the end of the speech was inspiring, but little has been said how his national initiative will translate to improving instuction at the local level.

Have a great weekend!

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