Emily Alpert's Bright and Early column is jam-packed with links to stories I wouldn't come across if I didn't read Voice of San Diego. Here is a sampling from today's column.
Bright and Early
EMILY ALPERT
September 11, 2009
...# The North County Times reports that the future of a controversial reading program is uncertain in Vista schools. Schools will use similar strategies after class, but will not use the consultants who are supposed to oversee the program.
# Schools historian Diane Ravitch blogs at Education Week that the reforms boosted by the stimulus may not be so hot: "What is extraordinary about these regulations is that they have no credible basis in research," she writes. "They just happen to be the programs and approaches favored by the people in power."
# The Washington Post reports that the D.C. teachers union may be nearing a deal with firebrand Superintendent Michelle Rhee on a contract. Rhee has relinquished the idea of a two-tiered salary schedule with higher pay for teachers who give up key job protections, but the nascent deal could still give D.C. schools more power to fire ineffective teachers.
# And the USA Today zeroes in on a Kentucky school district where a football coach took players on a voluntary trip to be baptized in church. He used a school bus -- but another coach paid for the fuel. Is that a problem? Their superintendent says no. The American Civil Liberties Union says yes.
Showing posts with label Lindamood-Bell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lindamood-Bell. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
California screws up NCLB tutor list (SES); refuses to qualify Lindamood-Bell but approves substandard ARC Associates
Ineffective tutors, why does California pay them to continue?
June 28, 10:03 PM
Under No Child Left Behind, outside literacy tutoring is supposed to be offered to schools with low academic scores. State Department of Education agencies are supposed to screen and select tutoring centers that are deemed to be effective...
SES focuses on supplemental instruction or tutoring in English-language arts and/or mathematics for eligible students in Title I Program Improvement (PI) schools. Schools in Year two and beyond of PI are required to offer SES. The SES program augments the PI schools’ programs of instruction to help eligible students meet California’s state content standards."
...However one has to wonder what criteria they are using to select their tutors and how they monitor their effectiveness. I have found out Lindamood Bell, which offers scientifically researched successful programs with well documented statistical evidence or reading gain was NOT approved to be an SES tutor.
According to Tom Mendoza at Lindamood Bell learning process's, the Ca DOE was evasive about their criteria and did not offer any plausible explanation for the refusal.
In contrast, San Francisco based * ARC Associates, was approved by the CDE. ARC associates is the tutoring company.who has worked at Cesar Chavez Elementary School for the past five years and last year made $237,266.71 from the San Francisco Unified School District. This year, the district will pay ARC a projected $559,523 in SES tutoring contracts, according to the San Francisco Unified School District’s Office of State and Federally Funded Programs.
Yet nowhere has the weakness in the tutoring program been more stark than at Cesar Chavez, where tutoring has failed to increase scores on the standardized math and reading tests for most of the last five years. In 2007, test scores actually plunged 139 points, and last year’s scores rose only 10 points despite a growing number of students taking advantage of the subsidized tutoring.
This year at Cesar Chavez, 93 of the 183 eligible first through fifth grade students have been spending two or three hours a week since January getting assistance, but few expect better results on tests. At a school in Program Improvement, all students are eligible to receive tutoring, although some students get priority including those who are failing state tests and first graders who fail a reading test.
Arlene Graham, program liaison for ARC Associates, blamed the low test scores on the difficulty in teaching students whose first language is not English. Chavez’s student body is comprised of 71.6 percent Latino English learners compared to 17.5 percent district-wide. “The reality of working with bilingual children is that they have to go through development academically in their own language, then transition academically into English,” said Graham. “How do we get the English content and meaning to them? There is a lag.”
In contrast, Lindamood Bell made substantial gains with ESL students in 2009 working in collaboration with Vista Unified School District at Olive, their lowest performing school which consisted of many ESL students. See http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d8-Vista-unified-school-district-and-Lindamood-Bell-proves-all-students-can-achieve
Reading instructor Amber Lamprecht was able to make 1.4 years of reading gain in 36 hours over 6 months to ESL students. http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m4d22-36-hours-to-change-a-child-life
...Secretary of education, Arne Duncan recently stated that California has "lost it's way" when it comes to education. When one looks at this tutoring situation, he is absolutely right. Why should he give California more funds for education when our current decision makers at the CDE make such poor choices?
*As first reported in Mission Local web site:
SES Providers for Ca: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ti/ap/providers.aspx
https://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d28-Ineffective-NCLB-tutors-why-does-Ca-DOE-allow-them-to-continue
June 28, 10:03 PM
Under No Child Left Behind, outside literacy tutoring is supposed to be offered to schools with low academic scores. State Department of Education agencies are supposed to screen and select tutoring centers that are deemed to be effective...
SES focuses on supplemental instruction or tutoring in English-language arts and/or mathematics for eligible students in Title I Program Improvement (PI) schools. Schools in Year two and beyond of PI are required to offer SES. The SES program augments the PI schools’ programs of instruction to help eligible students meet California’s state content standards."
...However one has to wonder what criteria they are using to select their tutors and how they monitor their effectiveness. I have found out Lindamood Bell, which offers scientifically researched successful programs with well documented statistical evidence or reading gain was NOT approved to be an SES tutor.
According to Tom Mendoza at Lindamood Bell learning process's, the Ca DOE was evasive about their criteria and did not offer any plausible explanation for the refusal.
In contrast, San Francisco based * ARC Associates, was approved by the CDE. ARC associates is the tutoring company.who has worked at Cesar Chavez Elementary School for the past five years and last year made $237,266.71 from the San Francisco Unified School District. This year, the district will pay ARC a projected $559,523 in SES tutoring contracts, according to the San Francisco Unified School District’s Office of State and Federally Funded Programs.
Yet nowhere has the weakness in the tutoring program been more stark than at Cesar Chavez, where tutoring has failed to increase scores on the standardized math and reading tests for most of the last five years. In 2007, test scores actually plunged 139 points, and last year’s scores rose only 10 points despite a growing number of students taking advantage of the subsidized tutoring.
This year at Cesar Chavez, 93 of the 183 eligible first through fifth grade students have been spending two or three hours a week since January getting assistance, but few expect better results on tests. At a school in Program Improvement, all students are eligible to receive tutoring, although some students get priority including those who are failing state tests and first graders who fail a reading test.
Arlene Graham, program liaison for ARC Associates, blamed the low test scores on the difficulty in teaching students whose first language is not English. Chavez’s student body is comprised of 71.6 percent Latino English learners compared to 17.5 percent district-wide. “The reality of working with bilingual children is that they have to go through development academically in their own language, then transition academically into English,” said Graham. “How do we get the English content and meaning to them? There is a lag.”
In contrast, Lindamood Bell made substantial gains with ESL students in 2009 working in collaboration with Vista Unified School District at Olive, their lowest performing school which consisted of many ESL students. See http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d8-Vista-unified-school-district-and-Lindamood-Bell-proves-all-students-can-achieve
Reading instructor Amber Lamprecht was able to make 1.4 years of reading gain in 36 hours over 6 months to ESL students. http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m4d22-36-hours-to-change-a-child-life
...Secretary of education, Arne Duncan recently stated that California has "lost it's way" when it comes to education. When one looks at this tutoring situation, he is absolutely right. Why should he give California more funds for education when our current decision makers at the CDE make such poor choices?
*As first reported in Mission Local web site:
SES Providers for Ca: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ti/ap/providers.aspx
https://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d28-Ineffective-NCLB-tutors-why-does-Ca-DOE-allow-them-to-continue
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Vista Unified School District holds a tense board meeting regarding Lindamood-Bell and teacher union influence
The North County Times is to be appreciated for its coverage of school issues in north county that the San Diego Union Tribune doesn't cover. I'm not sure if the SDUT is simply not interested in the issues, or if it wants to protect school officials from embarrassment.
But the NCT article about last Thursday's Vista Unified School District (VUSD) board meeting doesn't mention that school attorney Daniel Shinoff made a rare appearance at the open session, sitting with the board until late at night (about 11:30 p.m.). Perhaps Mr. Shinoff and his supporters wanted to prove that he's not cowering in shame after the recent Voice of San Diego article about him. (It's too bad the taxpayers have to pay so much for his time if it was just a publicity stunt.) On the other hand, perhaps the board wanted him to be there to defend them from angry parents.
The article below fails to mention the fact that a large number of parents were at the meeting to voice their concern about an issue other than class size: the Lindamood-Bell program.
Many parents want the Lindamood-Bell program to continue, but the teachers union and parents of advanced students want to get rid of it. It seems that teachers don't want to do the training for the program, and neither do they want people who have done the training--but do not have teaching credentials--operating the program. Many parents object to the district's turning down a large federal grant for Lindamood-Bell, particularly since the program is designed to help students with problems in reading and English learners.
VISTA: Complaint alleges 3 school board trustees held secret meeting
Trio says they didn't violate state law
North County Times
By STACY BRANDT
March 6, 2009
VISTA ---- A complaint filed Friday accuses three Vista Unified School District trustees of violating state open meetings laws, then voting to reverse an earlier board decision to increase class sizes.
The accusation came to light Thursday when Trustee Jim Gibson questioned whether three of his fellow board members ---- Carol Herrera, Elizabeth Jaka and Angela Chunka ---- met privately a week earlier with teachers union leaders to discuss the issue.
Gibson said the private meeting took place just after the Vista school board held its public meeting Feb. 26 and voted the first time on the class-size proposal. The board's approval of the plan meant that as many as 120 teachers would be laid off.
The three trustees said they were at Herrera's home after the meeting, but did not discuss the vote. Herrera said that she left the room when the other two arrived, realizing it would be a violation of state law to talk about district business.
"I knew that it was inappropriate, if only by perception and appearance," she said Friday.
Silvia Peters, a community activist who frequents Vista Unified meetings, filed the complaint Friday with the district board. She threatened to take the matter to court if the board didn't resolve it within 30 days.
"This kind of stuff has got to stop," Peters said Friday. "What they're doing is limiting public participation."
Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the get-together wouldn't violate the state's open meeting law, known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, unless the three trustees discussed district matters...
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