EDUCATION TRENDS and NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

While conceptually it is difficult to argue with the basic premise of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it is a much greater challenge to operationalize the provision that all students will reach proficiency in multiple disciplines. Districts are striving to find ways to do a better job of getting more students than ever before to higher standards - which we must admit is possible to do.

Small, Focused Learning Communities

A common trend emerging throughout the country is to divide the student population into small learning communities that are organized around areas of interest to students. Highly focused programs then use the area of interest as a vehicle to teach mathematics, science, English language arts, and social studies. The trend seems to be an offshoot of what magnet schools and specialized academies have been endeavoring to do.

Four examples that we at the International Center have looked at in recent weeks seem to be setting the stage for a proliferation of small learning communities:

• In South Carolina, legislation with bipartisan support has been proposed by a governor's task force to require all secondary school students to have an area of focus before they graduate from high school. Areas of focus must be one of the 16 Career Clusters established by the U.S. Department of Education. Students will be introduced to career awareness in elementary school, career exploration in middle school, and then more in-depth study in one of the clusters in high school, with their math, science, English language arts, and social studies programs coordinated to the area of interest.
• In California, Sacramento high schools are being broken into small learning communities of 400 students. Sacramento High School will be broken into six separate schools-within-a-school: the arts; music; math, science, and engineering; health; journalism; and public service. Academic courses will be directly tied to these areas.
• A similar initiative is under discussion as part of a system-wide career development initiative in Palm Beach County, Florida.
• In New Orleans, five "signature" schools are being created around specific career fields.
  

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Data-driven decision making has become far more important under NCLB. Our schools have typically been data rich but analysis poor when it comes to making instructional decisions. In the NCLB legislation, the word "data" appears 230 times. A whole industry appears to be developing around providing data to schools to help them make decisions. Unfortunately, much of that data is of questionable value. School leaders need to be extremely careful to use data that they believe is reliable and relevant to the instructional decisions they need to make. Many schools are having good results by using data that compare state tests to state standards and to national surveys of the perceived importance of various standard relative to what students need to know and be able to do when they graduate.

Source: "Federal Legislation Sparks New Development in Data Driven Decision Making," by Matt Stein, The Education Economy #139, Eduventures.com, March 5, 2003

New NCLB Resource for Administrators

The International Center has just published a state-specific resource kit related to No Child Left Behind. For more info please visit our Website at http://www.leadered.com/nclbkit.html

Lawsuits Related to NCLB

As schools begin to implement NCLB, lawsuits loom on the horizon. Already, at least one suit has been filed on behalf of parents who assert that they were not adequately notified that their children were in poor-performing schools and that, as a result, they had the right to transfer their children to another school or get extra help for them. In California, an anti-poverty group has filed suit alleging that the state lacks sufficient "qualified teachers" as required by NCLB.

Source: "Federal School Act a Possible Litigation Magnet," by Rick Karlin, TimesUnion.com, February 13, 2003

Projected Labor Shortage Increases Importance of NCLB

By 2005, the United States will have an estimated 158,000,000 people available for our work force, 10 million shy of the number of jobs expected to exist. One reason for this is the aging population. In the 1950s, there were 17 workers for every retiree. The current ratio is three workers for each retiree. This is another reason why America must be sure that no child is left behind. Schools need to do a better job of preparing every student to become a productive member of the work force and society.

Source: Speech by Dr. Samuel Betances to the 2003 American Association of School Administrators Conference, eSchool News, February 28, 2003

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Internet Literacy

A study released by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Center for Communication Policy found that Americans who use the Internet regard it as at least as important as newspapers and books and more important than television, radio, and magazines as a source of information. Not surprisingly, 12- to 18-year-olds led in Internet use; with 97% using it. In the 25 to 35 age group, 83% use the Internet, along with 73% for those ages 36 to 55. While survey respondents relied heavily on the Internet, they also indicated skepticism about the information found there (only 53% believed "all" or "most of" what they read). Therefore, skills in not just finding, but also assessing the validity of information need to be taught in school. How to use the Internet wisely appears to be a new form of literacy.

Source: "UCLA Study Highlights Web's Importance in Education," eSchool News Online, February 21, 2003

Computers to Go

Nice to see you again, er, um...? Accenture, a California firm, has designed a prototype of a personal awareness assistant that can help its wearer recall a person's name. The belt-pack technology uses Global Positioning System (GPS) electronics and speech recognition software to analyze a person's voice and mark the encounter with the location. The device aims to do for customer or contact recognition what palmtop devices do for appointments and phone numbers.

Source: "Hey, Hasn't My Computer Heard You Somewhere Before," by Bruce Headlam, New York Times, February 13, 2003, nytimes.com

Robots at the Bedside

As the number of frail elderly and ill Americans continues to rise, the health-care industry is seeking new ways to provide assistance to them. The impending labor shortage mentioned previously will only exacerbate the problem of providing adequate care to this population. Now, along comes The Companion to the rescue. Developed by InTouch Health Inc., this experimental robot has a built-in camera to observe the patient and a TV screen on which the remote caregiver's face appears. It is being used to communicate with patients in a care facility for people with Alzheimer's as a clinical trial. With the increased capacity of nanotech, biotech and information tech, the use of this type of device may grow in the years ahead as a supplement to more expensive (and in short supply) "in person" direct care.

Source: "Hospitals Take Robots for a Spin," Reuters, Wired News, March 6, 2003 www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57937,00.html

NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE

Descriptions of many of the concurrent sessions at this year's Model Schools Conference, June 29-July 2 in Orlando, are now posted on our Website: http://www.leadered.com/model_schools.html