Posted 10:44 AM by Susan Darst Williams

IN OPS, YOU HAVE A
1-IN-2 CHANCE OF BEING ILLITERATE

Not exactly a Chamber of Commerce week in education news: on top of the announcement that Nebraska is tied for first in the nation in the size of its graduation gap between the races (83% for white males and 40% for black males), comes now the atrocious scores on a statewide reading test posted by the Omaha Public Schools.

Only 52% of the OPS students scored as "proficient," which is generally considered to be at or above grade-level reading skill.

So if you attend an OPS school, you have basically a 1-in-2 chance of being functionally illiterate. Of course, the inner-city schools are much worse than the suburban ones within OPS, so it's more like a 9-in-10 chance, in some places. But the overall effect is atrocious.

OPS defenders say that the statewide reading test was only a quick "snapshot" of how the kids did on one day. Their own assessments take place over much more time than that, with lots of opportunities for remediation, and so their own reading test scores are much higher than the state's.

But even if the scores are only a snapshot, think about this: a picture is worth 1,000 words.

Ironically -- or tellingly -- in the Omaha Public Schools, scores were even worse in high school. At Benson High School, for example, only 35% of the students could read proficiently. And yet reading is the schools' basic mission, and these kids have been in high-priced public school for quite a few years, which reflects even worse on the low scores.

Lousy reading doesn't bode too well for their college prospects, or for the future workforce in this state.

And just think of the impression these students now have of what their fellow Omahans and units of government really think of them, to allow them to be in school for so many years and remain unable to read. Can we really blame them for turning to crime, unwed pregnancy and welfare?

Shame, shame, shame . . . but tomorrow, an idea for change!

Labels: 52% illiteracy rate in Omaha Public Schools, Nebraska statewide reading test scores

Posted 3:12 PM by Susan Darst Williams

NEBRASKA'S 40% GRAD RATE FOR BLACK MALES
IS ATROCIOUS IN THE MIDWEST
AND THE BIGGEST RACIAL GAP IN THE NATION,
BUT FAIRLY NORMAL OTHERWISE

Talk about shocking: that horrendous 40% graduation rate for black teenage boys in Nebraska is about on par with the East and West Coasts, and actually better than many of the larger cities.

Even so, statewide figures and the huge disparity between black and white graduation rates for boys -- 83% for whites vs. that 40% for blacks -- lands Nebraska in a tie with New York for the largest statewide graduation racial gap in the nation.

Ew! Ew! Ewwww! That's a claim to No. 1 that nobody in Nebraska wants to hear -- and they're doing it to our kids, using our money.

See a report on 2008 national data from the Scott Foundation for Public Education, www.schottfoundation.org

If there has ever been a time to pull all low-income and minority children out of the public schools, and put them in the private schools where they can succeed, it is now.

There is no doubt that the relative illiteracy of Head Start teachers, the lack of phonics instruction in the early grades, and the overall atmosphere of harsh, unkind, zero-tolerance discipline by staff in the public schools has created a monstrous amount of illiteracy among young black males, and correspondingly high dropout rates with correspondingly high rates of juvenile delinquency and violence.

We need private donors to fund 200 one-room, K-12 schoolhouses around North Omaha, and it really wouldn't cost that much . . . and let OPS' inner-city schools implode, as they should, and let the district concentrate on its middle-class and upper-class schools, which also need help, but aren't in as drastic a crisis.

Labels: Nebraska No. 1 in racial graduation gap

Posted 12:12 PM by Susan Darst Williams

GREAT NEW BELLEVUE U PRO-AMERICA CENTER
LEADS THE WAY ON PROPER SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

Those who are sick about the anti-American "social justice" curriculum that is on its way to Omaha's Nathan Hale Middle School should take heart: there are, indeed, people in the metro area who know what appropriate "social justice" instruction is for kids.

Maybe those with a grasp of the right kind of "social justice" training should have a talk with the Omaha Public Schools people who are now planning the "social justice" theme at the school, well aware that around the country, "social justice" schools tend to devolve into Marxism, multiculturalism, racism and all kinds of other "isms" instead of making their students highly literate, numerate and able to take the reins of citizenship.

The good "social justice" course is offered by the Bellevue University Center for American Vision and Values, in partnership with the Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy and the Heritage Foundation. The seven-week, dual enrollment (high school students earning college credit), online course is called "Re-Visioning Social Justice: American Civil Society and the World's Poor."

The course examines the history of poverty in the United States, and the pro's and con's of various private-sector and public-sector attempts to assist the nation's poor.

As the climax of the course, students design their own anti-poverty initiative and argue for its likely effectiveness.

For more about the Bellevue University Center for American Vision & Values, see:

www.americanvisionandvalues.org

Labels: Bellevue University Center for American Vision and Values, online course on social justice for high school students, proper social justice curriculum

Posted 6:15 PM by Susan Darst Williams

HOW MANY OF THESE NEA POLICIES
DO YOU AGREE WITH? LET THEM KNOW

Here are the rather disturbing policy stands taken by attendees at the annual National Education Association convention.

Circle any that you agree with -- don't worry, you won't use much precious ink -- and mail to your state or local NEA union affiliate with a note.

Your note could say something like, "These don't seem to have much, if anything, to do with actually educating children. Are you about schools, or politics?" See if you get a response:

www.eagleforum.org/educate/2010/aug10/resolutions.html

Labels: NEA resolutions, politics vs. education

Posted 1:08 PM by Susan Darst Williams

HOW IS ANYBODY GOING TO AFFORD
SCHOOL SUPPLIES NEXT YEAR,
MUCH LESS COLLEGE TUITION?

Keep this in mind when you vote in November for new school board members, legislators, and anybody else who can levy taxes. What a bunch of anti-family, anti-education tax increases we are going to see! Do not vote for anybody who ISN'T talking about the urgent need to cut taxes and government spending, STAT, and to reverse these horrendous increases.

Imagine how hard it is going to be to save for your children's college educations now. The Democratically-controlled Congress and Democratic Party President have set in place these tax increases on you, starting Jan. 1:

-- Increase of income taxes; for example, the 35% tax bracket zooms up to 39.6%

-- New tax on the value of your health-care benefits

-- Loss of deductions for tuition, student loans and interest payments, as well as health savings accounts

-- Capital gains tax zooms up from 15% to 20%

-- Dividends tax zooms up from 15% to 39.6%

-- Death tax returns; that's 55% tax after the first $1 million in an estate, which these days, isn't all that doggone much

-- Child tax credit is cut in half, to $500

-- Marriage penalty tax is back

-- Dependent-care and adoption tax credits gone

Labels: effect of Jan. 1 tax increases on family educational saving

Posted 5:18 PM by Susan Darst Williams

STATE, NATIONAL ACT AVERAGE SCORES:
A CHAIR LEG COULD DO AS WELL

Let's remember that the national average of a 21 on the college admissions test, the ACT, announced yesterday, is about as good as a CHAIR LEG could do on the test.

A perfect score is 36, and that's very hard to get, but a score of 21 is what would be posted by someone on the verge of functional illiteracy . . . and remember, that is the average, which means half of those taking the test did worse.

Nebraska's average score of 22.1 is actually pretty embarrassing on that 1-to-36 point scale, considering that we have relatively few test-takers who are African-American and Hispanic, two student groups who have notoriously low test scores for various reasons.

The Wall Street Journal reported that 75% of 2010 graduates who took the ACT had scores so low on the individual tests, especially science, that they lacked the academic skills to pass an entry-level college course in those subjects. That means our high schools have a 25% success rate in meeting their basic mission.

Rather than celebrating that Nebraska "beat" the national average on the ACT, we really ought to demand that the State of Nebraska compel the ACT to publish the test questions and send parents the test booklet with their child's answer sheet. Then we can all see the kinds of mistakes that our kids are making after 12 or so years of educating them to the tune of more than $10,000 per pupil per year.

There would be an immediate stampede to private schools and how-to books on homeschooling, betcha.

Labels: ACT scores Nebraska

Posted 10:16 AM by Susan Darst Williams

KUDOS TO CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND:
HELPING 2,000 POOR KIDS GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOL

If you want to help a low-income child have the choice to attend private school instead of public school, donate to the Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha, 3212 N. 60th St., 68104, or call 557-5650 ext. 1906 or 1908.

The organization's annual luncheon recently disclosed that donors helped 2,000 children in 23 northeast Nebraska counties, including Omaha, attend private schools through tuition assistance provided by the donors to the scholarship fund.

According to outgoing president J. Peter Ricketts, the program's effectiveness is shown by this statistic: 96% of the scholarshipped students who leave Holy Name School in Omaha's inner city go on to graduate from high school. That compares to an overall graduation rate in the inner city of less than 50%.

Around the country, the evidence is mounting that private education works better for disadvantaged children than public education.

New donors are being sought for the Nebraska group because of the recession. The poor economy has increased the need for tuition assistance at the same time as it has eroded giving power among existing donors. Ricketts said that there is only enough money to give 200 additional scholarships on top of the ones already being given this year, but the group has more than 1,300 new applications for the 2010-11 school year.

Labels: Children's Scholarship Fund Omaha, tuition assistance for disadvantaged children to go to private schools

Posted 2:02 PM by Susan Darst Williams

----------------

Whoopsie Daisy! Is K-2 Really the Answer?

Boy, is my face red. I've been going around for years, promoting K-2 as the answer to our education woes. 'Course, I mean that we need to have systematic, intensive, explicit phonics instruction on the front burner for our kindergarten through second-grade classrooms.

Comes now State Sen. Beau McCoy of west Omaha, who is sponsoring a bill next session that would make the sale or possession of a new drug, K2, illegal. K2 is synthetic marijuana, and it can give you rapid heart rate, agitation, panic attacks, paranoia and hallucinations.

We already have enough of THAT in our schools -- particularly when people get their school tax bills!

K2 is sold as "herbal incense" and goes by brand names such as Spice, Black Magic, Blue Summit, Blueberry and SuperNova.

Thanks, Sen. McCoy, for alerting parents to this latest threat to our kids . . . and giving me a heads up to make sure I make it clear, when I promote "K-2," that I'm talking about PHONICS for the itty bitty kiddies!!!

Labels: K2 drug, Nebraska legislature, phonics, school humor, Sen. Beau McCoy

Posted 1:06 PM by Susan Darst Williams

RHODE ISLAND UNION-BUSTING TACTIC
IS THE PERFECT RX FOR OPS

Whoa! Cheers for Frances Gallo, a Rhode Island school principal, who is going to fire about 100 teachers, assistants, and administrators for failing to obey her orders aimed at improving the educational outcome of the high school in beleaguered Central Falls, R.I.

Half of the students are failing ALL of their classes, and the graduation rate is BELOW 50%. Unemployment is rampant in the town, with average salaries pegged at $22,000 a year. But school staffers are making upwards of $50,000 MORE than that.

So Ms. Gallo decided it was time for the staff to take some serious steps to fix the failing school:

-- work 25 minutes longer per school day
-- provide before- and after-school tutoring on a rotating basis
-- eat lunch with the students once a week
-- have more rigorous staff evaluations
-- attend weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers
-- attend two weeks of summer training

The unionized staff refused. So Ms. Gallo FIRED them!!!

Woo hoo! Love it. Let's keep watching this one . . . and see if the idea spreads to other schools where far too many kids are failing and dropping out. Exhibit A: the Omaha Public Schools.

Read about it:

www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodgett-unionized-rhode-island-teachers-refuse-to-work-25-minutes-more-per-day-so-town-fires-all-of-them-2010-2

Labels: Frances Gallo, Rhode Island tactic of firing uncooperative staff would work in the Omaha Public Schools, Rhode Island union-busting

Posted 9:58 AM by Susan Darst Williams

NEBRASKA EDUCATION LEADER
BLASTS FEDS FOR ENDING SCHOOL CHOICE IN D.C.

It's encouraging to see a university president in Nebraska who "gets it" about how school choice is the answer for disadvantaged children and youth.

Even though we're a state which lacks any form of meaningful school choice -- vouchers, tax credits, charter schools, contract schools, a network of multifamily attendance area homeschools -- the president of Grace University still perceives the benefits of school choice. He still has enough common sense to see that it is wrong of the Obama Administration to end the school-choice vouchers program that was demonstrably working in the District of Columbia.

See:

www.issuesinperspective.com/2010/Feb/10feb20-21_2.cfm

Labels: school choice program District of Columbia

Posted 1:58 PM by Susan Darst Williams

ELKHORN KIDS COMPETE IN
ENGINEERING CONTEST IN D.C.,
JOIN THE PRESIDENT IN SPACE CHAT

Congratulations to two middle-school teams from the Elkhorn Public Schools, who took first and second in a recent regional Future City competition, and were in Washington, D.C., this week, competing at the national finals. See http://www.futurecity.org/

Students from Elkhorn Ridge Middle School and Elkhorn Middle School designed and built tabletop models of a DURA -- Disaster Underground Relocation Area -- which was this year's theme for the student competition that is put on during National Engineers Week.

Three of the students got to visit President Obama along with students from three other states as he placed a phone call to American astronauts in the space station.

Kevin Riggert, principal of Elkhorn Ridge, said that experience and the Future City competition is a good example of how schools are teaching students 21st Century thinking skills, creativity, collaboration and real-world application. "It gives me shivers," he said. "This is what makes your job."

He said 34,000 middle-school students were in Washington for the event, so it was an honor indeed for the three Elkhorn students.

The students used simulation software, researched and wrote an essay and narrative about how the city would function, and gave an oral presentation to a panel of engineers. They worked with engineer mentors in this practical application of math, science, technology and engineering.

Riggert said his school's students were the only ones at nationals to use an outer space theme. He conjectures that is why some team members were invited to the White House. The team won a special award, he said.

Labels: Elkhorn Public Schools, Nebraska students at Future City competition

Posted 2:50 PM by Susan Darst Williams

N.U. GRADS FUND READING CENTER
ON UNL CAMPUS FOR 1-ON-1 TUTORING

A major gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation has resulted in a new name for the remedial reading center in the Home Economics Building on East Campus at UNL. It's the Kit and Dick Schmoker Reading Center:

http://cehs.unl.edu/tlte/readingcenter/

The Schmokers graduated in the 1960s and live in Edina, Minn. Their git pays for salaries, outreach services, equipment, scholarships and fellowships for college students involved in reading education.

N.U.'s future teachers tutor children at the center to apply what they're learning in their undergraduate and graduate courses.

The center serves students who read one to three years below grade level. So far, nearly 300 students in elementary, middle and high schools have been aided.

Labels: 1-on-1 tutoring in reading in Nebraska, Schmoker Reading Center, UNL reading remediation

Posted 11:08 AM by Susan Darst Williams

MONOPOLY:
GOOD GAME, BAD SCHOOL SYSTEM

John Stossel has a good article that points out how foolish it is to expect a government monopoly to do a good job delivering an important item like a child's education:

www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/02/17/education_too_important_for_a_government_monopoly

In the last few days, I've talked to three teacher friends who are all down in the mouth over what they CAN'T do. It's all because they are forced to do things a certain way by the government monopoly.

One wants the freedom and flexibility to teach to the children's passions and interests, but has to stick to the multitudinous, micromanaging standards which bore her as much as they bore the children.

One wants to be able to flunk kids who aren't working hard in his high school science class, but it's against district policy to flunk anybody, and the kids KNOW that, so all he can do is let them take the same test over and over until even an eggplant would be able to pass.

The third would like to recommend to the parents of a short, frail seventh-grade boy to switch him to a private school, because he is getting bullied by the public school "toughs" who are already in gangs. But if she did that, she'd get fired.

What should we do?

End the government monopoly over schools. The question is, how?

Labels: end government monopoly over education

Posted 10:25 AM by Susan Darst Williams

WATCHING THE SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD SQUIRM
OVER JUDGE'S RULING THAT THEIR MATH CURRICULUM
DAMAGES THE FUTURES OF LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

It is instructive and encouraging to see how a citizens' group in Seattle is shining a spotlight on the terrible disservice that "whole math" does to all students, but particularly low-income and minority students:

www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/53457.html

The Omaha Public Schools has the exact same problem -- stubbornly clinging to "discovery" math curriculum that is actually making low-income kids more innumerate, and widening the racial achievement gap. It has become a civil rights issue in Seattle, and it sure as shootin' is in Omaha as well.

Now all we need is a small group of concerned citizens to file suit. Any takers?

Labels: math racial achievement gap, Seattle math lawsuit

Posted 9:48 AM by Susan Darst Williams

SEATTLE JUDGE ORDERS SCHOOL BOARD
TO TAKE A HARDER LOOK AT FUZZY MATH TEXTS

This is a victory for fans of traditional math instruction! A group of citizens filed a lawsuit against the Seattle Public Schools for selecting a "discovery math" curriculum, even though the evidence showed that it increased the racial achievement gap, rather than helped low-income and minority students succeed more in math.

The judge recently ruled that the school board should take another look at the evidence for and against that curriculum. While he stopped short of ordering them to throw it out, he agreed with the citizens that it looked counter-productive to the goal of helping low-income and minority students succeed in math:

http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/2010/02/decision-favors-plaintiffs-in-court.html

"Discovery math" is the style of many, many public school boards these days. It keeps the low-income kids down, and prevents more advantaged kids from achieving as much in math as they could, if they had traditional math instruction.

Wouldn't it be great if school boards would come to their senses, drop-kick "fuzzy math" and get tried-and-true, computation-based math textbooks back in the classroom?

Or do we have to SUE 'em?

Labels: fuzzy math prevents low-income and minority kids from achieving success, problems with discovery math, Seattle math lawsuit

Posted 1:16 PM by Susan Darst Williams

HEAD START IS A TOTAL WASTE;
OPS SHOULD DROP-KICK IT IMMEDIATELY

According to this well-designed, massive study for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, kids who had been in the expensive, government-provided early childhood program Head Start scored no better than kids in their same economic circumstances on 40 out of 41 measurements of cognitive impacts at the end of kindergarten:

http://acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/reports/impact_study/executive_summary_final.pdf

The study used a very large, nationally representative sample and used a random assignment design -- the gold standard for such research.

The study, "Head Start Impact Study Final Report," released this week, was produced by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation of the Administration for Children and Families within HHS.

The Omaha Public Schools administers Head Start along with several other providers across the State of Nebraska.

Labels: Head Start ineffective, Head Start provides no benefit in 40 out of 41 categories, Nebraska Head Start program should be abolished

Posted 12:53 PM by Susan Darst Williams

YET ANOTHER GOVERNMENT-FUNDED STUDY
SHOWS HEAD START DOESN'T DO A DANG THING

(See post, above, for the link to the study)

Nebraska's finances are in such dire straits, it's a no-brainer that we should immediately cancel our Head Start funding across the state. It's a boondoggle!

We should switch to the early childhood ed curricula and methods that have been proven to result in strong literacy and numeracy for all kids on down the road, but especially at-risk, low-income kids who are now being ill-served by Head Start. Those are phonics-based and play-based curricula and methods -- better, cheaper and more fun all the way around.

If our tax dollars aren't REALLY giving low-income kids a "head start" on doing well in school, why in the Sam Hill do we keep funding it?

I contend that lousy pre-K and early-primary curriculum and instruction in the Omaha Public Schools is WHY they have one of the nation's widest racial achievement gaps, and WHY the graduation rate is so low among low-income and minority kids.

The kids and their parents can tell right off the bat that their futures don't matter as much to OPS as those of the rich, white kids, and so they disengage.

I CAN'T LIVE WITH THAT ANOTHER DAY. CAN YOU?!?

If we used pre-K and early-primary methods for our state's low-income itty bitties that really could bring them up to par academically with their more-advantaged classmates, how much happier would we feel about the outcomes of our hard-earned tax dollars, vs. throwing them down a rathole with Head Start programs?

How much better would it be for Nebraska's economic development prospects to get rid of that atrocious race-based academic achievement gap?

And most of all, how many tens of millions of dollars in remediation and at-risk services would we save, now and in the years to come, if we could drastically reduce the number of kids who ARE at-risk because of lousy reading preparation and instruction?

The juicy stuff starts on p. iv of this report, indicating clearly that any benefit young children might get from attendance in the Head Start program washes out almost immediately.

It's just another red flag showing why it is long past time to force the Omaha Public Schools, which runs Head Start in the state's largest city, to drop Head Start immediately or "show cause" why they shouldn't.

Labels: Head Start doesn't work, Nebraska Head Start, switch from Head Start to pre-K and early primary curricula that do develop literacy and numeracy