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46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards


According to the article 46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards in the Washington Post By Maria Glod Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 1, 2009, forty-six states and the District of Columbia want to set a standard for all schools nationwide for each grade from kindergarten to high school senior year. This would mean common standards that can be compared to students all over the country so that it can be used as a judgement for students in countries all over the world at a time of global competition. This change is said to be “…an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American Schools.” This change would affect the teachers, the school board, the students and their parents as well.

This would affect students needing to meet nationwide standards. In our present standards, students can learn at the pace they need in order to successfully comprehend all the material but with this new system, the students would have to catch up with the others. “This is a giant step,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who has been pushing states to adopt common, rigorous standards. “It would have been unimaginable, …”.Also, students would have to learn the standard way that the rest of the nation is learning meaning that there would not be any other way that the students could get to better understand the classwork. Standardized teaching is usually difficult for the students to relate to. According to U.S. Department of Education data, in states such as Mississippi, Maryland, and Virginia, students have not succeeded as well in the nationwide tests as much as they have in similar classroom tests for the same subjects; this can easily be the fault of teaching methods.

The paper discusses the plan to a common standard. Many people have opposed the idea. Some of the supported believed that having a common standard would mean having a unified curriculum and a unified knowledge for all students in the country. It will make the quality of work the same and it will be a more effective way of comparing school district all over the country. It will involve modifying curriculum, those modifications will likely include changing state testing-- a process that can take quite a long time. My guess is that no mandatory requirements will filter to the states for at least 3 years. -Dr. Petrosino

This change in the teaching system will affects the teachers. In today’s system of teaching, the teachers have a little power as to what their students will be learning and when. If the class needs more time to work on specific material then the teacher can personalize the classwork depending on what the students need further work on. Although this new system could mean less work for teachers having to prepare special agendas for their classes, they must use special methods now to help their students learn. According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. "A lot of hard work is ahead of us. But this is a huge step in a direction that would have been unimaginable just a year or two ago."There will be no prescription for how teachers get there, avoiding nettlesome discussions about whether phonics or whole language is a better method of teaching reading; whether students should be drilled in math facts; or whether eighth-graders should read "The Great Gatsby" or "To Kill a Mockingbird.

Many Education experts say there will still be plenty to argue about."All the groups, the math educators and the English professors and the liberals and the Conservatives will want to weigh in," said Michael J. Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Institution. "There are fundamental disagreements in our society about what kids should learn." Such as hands-on, special programs on the computer, collaborative activities etc.But with the new system, the case will be different done because the teachers would be forced to use the standard way of teaching that the other teachers nationwide are using.

This move is lead by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states, including Maryland and Virginia. They are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. With this new system when students get their high school diplomas, as they said they should be ready to tackle college or a job any where in the world, they will be able to compete in the job market in USA ,if not internationally. The benchmarks would be "internationally competitive."

This would also affect the parents of the students. If this change were raising the bar into higher and stricter education for students then the parents would have to work harder at motivating their children. This new system is talked about as the way the system should be. According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, “today’s patchwork system amounts to lying to children and their parents, because states have dumbed down their standards.” This could also in turn hurt the parents because they had the idea their child was doing well in school when in fact the curriculum may be behind the others. Also, If the curriculum gets revamped this could mean acquiring new textbooks and material for the students which would cost their parents more money out of their pockets.

Another party that will be affected is the school board itself. Not only would the school board have to create a brand new curriculum for each grade K-12, but also they would have to monitor the new change to make sure they would want to keep this new change and that all schools would adopt it. This will take lots of work, time, effort and money. The board is also aware that many may not like the change and are keeping their research and people participating in it, a secret to avoid bombardment by reporters and interest groups.

As the District of Columbia and forty-six other states are debating and planning on future plans for the nations educational system, and on setting certain nationwide standards. There are many things to keep in mind, this change could help to improve both the students’ education and the way the nations education is compared to by other nations in global competition and most importantly how this will affect the school board, the teachers, the students and the parents alike.

One type of assessment doesn’t fit all in my classroom and Student Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

KENNETH BERNSTEIN in What’s Behind the Curve also in New York Times talked about educators learning to teach in a complicated world where tests are an objective measurement and students are seen objectively and MAX ROOSEVELT in an article in the New York Times stated that educators have observed that their students feel entitled to receive A’s and B’s for simply completing basic coursework and There are many examples of how one type of assessment doesn’t fit all in any classroom. Accessing students in a variety of ways help me to know where their ability lies and it also helps me to better assess my students and know what they know. It also helps me to know how to reach them. I think an array of assessments: Comparisons of Common Final Exams, Comparisons of Common Content and Items Selected from Exams, Comparison of Pre- and Post-tests, Comparisons of Student Work Using Common Rubrics, Comparisons of course Grades Using Common Criteria is the only consistent way to guarantee long-term understanding of the lesson not just giving A’s and B’s for just completing a task. Measuring success is more than assigning numbers. I measure success in different ways by using variety of assessment.

According to FRED M. HECHINGER although it is fair to give quizzes to check on the homework, ''It is foolish and impertinent to ask students to write to questions that call for trivia, and downright perverted to try to trick them on obscure or difficult details.'' We as educators need to make realistic assignments and be sensible in assessing students' time. I access students in a variety of ways. I use formative, summative, diagnostic assessment to assess my students. I use participation in class, neatness of work, following direction, homework, class work, test, quizzes, class discussion, submitting your work early, working hard, interest in learning and project. I also give them rubric (formative assessment) to help them to know what is required of them. Using this formative assessment always help me to look for other quality in my students that is not only paper exam.

After quizzes, test, I always provide feedback or we go over it to help them to know it better next time. “Assessment and measurement strategies provide feedback to both the student and instructor. Students learn more effectively if they receive frequent, meaningful, and rapid feedback” .I also makes my students to evaluate (pier review) their work and assess themselves to know how they are doing in class.

We do test and quizzes –summative assessment every day to know what they have learned for the day and for the unit. I use summative assessment every time. I always find out what my students have learned by asking questions to get to the right answer. Also I tell them to write down what they learned today. I also give them worksheets to complete, that way I know if they understand the lesson or not. We also have a warm up at the beginning of every class.

Kenneth Bernstein in what’s Behind the Curve discuses how she asses students. I can put this in perspective for them by showing them how they did without crushing their spirits. In other words, the raw percentage is not what I put into the computerized grade program. I use Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. By working one on one with them; this way those that will not like to answer in class will have opportunity to say something. I also lead them to the right answer with questions.

Although, they like A’s and B’s but it is good to cultivate effort base belief in them that it good to try and work hard in order to achieve. My students like the many ways I evaluate them, as it makes them more accountable. They know that there is no excuse to fail, because I have many ways of assessing them.

Some of my students are not good with test or quizzes but when you call it class work they do well. I had one student that detest taking a test or exam so much so that when you give him a quiz, test with quiz or test written on the paper, he will refuse to take it and if you make him to take it, he will fail the test. However, without the name test or quiz, when I give him the same paper he will do very well. For better or worse, some students do agonize over every single grade, and I don’t want a poor performance to lead to their “shutting down” or even dropping out of school
I try to give my students that chance to show their ability through many ways of assessment. We educators need to discourage a “one assessment fits all assessment" to judge our students.

Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say
According to Benedict Carey in the times of November 13, 2007, abad/behavior student is one who, in a selfish manner, will resist any attempts to be educated and in the process will disrupt the education of others. Ronnie, a tall boy with dreadlocks and a baggy style of clothing can be the example for this topic. Ronnie likes to associate himself with the kids who believe they are born gangsters. In this attitude, he comes into class without intent to learn, but to totally avoid education and cause a ruckus. In terms of religion, Ronnie is without a choice, this gives a clue to his apathetic behavior. Ronnie comes from a less expensive neighborhood, a place where it is common to find criminal activity. His household is unstable, with parents that feel no responsibility in taking care of their only child, this results in Ronnie feeling as though he is here for his own and for what he wants. With this tragic background, his behavior in class may already seem evident.

Ronnie is a Special Ed student because of his difficulty with cooperating in class, this may give him extra benefits such as more time for tests or an assistant teacher but he does not take advantage of those benefits. When he attends class, he walks in while rapping aloud in a performing tone of voice, as though we are his audience. This directs the attention of the class towards his direction. When the class session has begun, Ronnie is already demonstrating his rebellion by putting in headphones and listening to his music while the teacher is prepared to present a topic or assignment. If the teacher approaches him about his headphones during study, he will break out in reasons why he feels this is OK, even if the school law does not allow this he will shout out in denial about how he does not care and tells the teacher to “leave him alone”. When Ronnie takes the actions the entire class is attracted by his wild behavior, this also prevents the teacher from continuing the work or presentation. His behavior causes a major delay in the learning process whether he realizes it or not. It is hard to tell how Ronnie feels about his “performances” in class. As he disrupts his class, he will display an arrogant grin on his face or an angry and annoyed face depending on the situation. From this, it can be determined that Ronnie has no concern for the class he is attending, the students in the class, or the teacher.

Even though this behavior may have seemed extreme and untreatable, salvation in the form of a concerned and understanding teacher had proved otherwise. Mr. Bakari, who is a teacher that came from similar circumstances as a child had seen Ronnie’s struggle from the source. He took Ronnie and discussed what he had gone through as a child as well. This immediately gave Ronnie someone to trust and relate to. By serious efforts and encouragements, Mr. Bakari had made Ronnie aware of the importance of his education and how he can make a good name for himself. Mr. Bakari had made Ronnie aware of his behavior in school and how it was affecting others in a negative manner. Ever since Mr. Bakari had lent his aid, Ronnie has been listening to teachers instead of ignoring them with headphones in his ear. He is now attempting to complete his work, pleasantly surprising the teachers and changing their opinion of him. Although he has not yet become a star pupil, Ronnie is slowly gaining the academic experience he needs with the help of this gifted teacher. “it appears teachers are able to work around these behavior problems in a way that enables kids to learn just as much as other kids with equal levels of ability,” said the lead author, Greg J. Duncan, a professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University.

By changing his attitude for academics and displaying a will to learn and to be educated, he has also changed in the eyes of others. People now see him as a respectable person and a potential student. Other students in the school no longer avoid him but enjoy talking to him. The teachers also see him now as a better person and are proud of his efforts to make a better student of himself. In terms of his friends, his old ones are still present and still enjoy his company as he acts the same with them outside of school. He has made new friends as well, his behavior in school has attracted new people to his personality, and they see a likable person with a sense of humor and a hint of intellect.

With the helping hand of Mr. Bakari who had seen a young version of himself who had potential to be a great student. Although his rise to academic success is slow, it seems sure. He may often stray from his efforts to learn and receive education; his concerned peers and teachers help drive him back to the right path. After all, his bad behavior may root from his unfortunate status at home, so he himself could not take the full blame. I have learned from Ronnie as an educator that a person who is brought from a bad background may be accustomed to this attitude and therefore cannot help his feelings; I have also learned from him that I am fortunate to come from a steady background and home. I also learned from him that as an educator we could affect the life of our students by our attitude towards them. We need to show them that we care and that they can trust and believe in us. We need to be the mother, father and friend that some of them so desperately needs.

Immersion program

Immersion program
Oct.8 MCPS bulletin of 2007.Vol 50 of no 7
This week I attended a training that on how to reach our second language learners. It was very interesting to note that some of educators do not appreciates that partial immersion will be helpful to them. Many of them believe that it was a waste of money, however, and they fail to recognize the fact that many of these students that their parent pay taxes and they are entitled to learn as other students in an environment that will help them learn better .I was happy that the instructor was able to lay it flat on the table about the need for bilingual education and partial immersion.

There is a need to make all students that English is there second language to master English so that they will be able to integrate into the main stream classes. There are so many problems and a lot of issues facing immersion program, its objective and outcomes. The article was very interesting to me as it touched a lot of aspect about how to reach them and make them learn. A lot of research has been done and is still ongoing about this issue in many of our school district all over the country. The story continues to unfold about immersion, is it effective? Has it worked? And if it has worked to what extent?Many of our students that English is their second language has made it without bilingual education, however, the environment has a lot to do about it.

This partial immersion program teaches math, science, reading/language arts and social studies in Spanish to kindergarten students. Students in Grades 1–4 are taught math and science in Spanish, and fifth graders receive science and social studies instruction in Spanish. Culture classes also are integrated at all levels. Enrollment in the program is 235, a little more than a third of the school population.

The issue is do we like to have total immersion or partial one where the student will have another class to connect with his language to understand the material. The article talks about total immersion as the students start school, these students are not given instruction to help them cope with the problem of language barrier. To me there need to me classroom or a program that will act as a bridge between their mainstream class and their first language in the first and second year, of the students schooling in this country depending on the individual students’ need. However as time goes on the student will start dropping the bilingual program or classes depending on the Standard English proficiency of the student. The exit need to be gradual, the students need to receive some of his/her instruction in the primary language as well as English during the first year of their school, later changes can be made on how instructions are given depending on the students .Immersion can then follow at this time as the student can read, write and communicate to some extent in English.

I read another article by Stephen Krashen Education?” in it I think this is good in the sense that the research orientation is combination of both interpretive and critical, it touches various ways our bilingual students must be reached and also stresses on the implication of each method. It impacts education because if our bilingual students are not reached it will affect our schools and the society as a whole. The teachers will have a high time with them and they, the bilingual students will be struggling in schools and this might eventually lead to their dropping out of school and eventually become a nuisance to the community and the society as a whole. The author’s theoretical framework is that of developmental as these students need to receive the write education in order to be integrated in the main stream class room. There is also a relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives here as he said that research is ongoing. In this country bilingual education has been an issue .Every state operates a different bilingual education program rang from ESL instruction, sheltered subject matter teaching, immersion and instruction in the first language. Many researches have been done and are still on going research to see the importance and how effective it is going.

This article contribute to my understanding of the problems as it made me to think about how I will be able to reach all my students and make them move further and be successful in school and in the society. This will affect my instruction in the sense that I will diversify in my instruction and integrate it in my curriculum; one can explore different customs and teach students. I can teach them basic languages of their peers like greetings. This will make the students interested in learning. I can ask the students to bring something from their culture and explain its importance to other students in class. I will create a classroom environment the same as what they are use to. Celebrate the different cultures and countries festivals, dress and music’s. As an educator I will embrace all cultural, I will inquire about the different cultural and include the different customs in my warms ups. Partial immersion is very good as it include some good bilingual educations that have yielded good result in different states .

High school dropout crisis' continues in U.S., study says
According to WASHINGTON (CNN) Tue May 5, 2009, Nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 in 2007 dropped out of high school, fueling what a report released Tuesday called "a persistent high school dropout crisis." There is more to high school drop-out than meets the eye. There are a lot of outside influences that causes a student to drop out of school: Race, ethnicity, academic factors, school violence, grade retention, poor academic performances, relocating, behavior, absenteeism and feeling of insecurity.
Many students drop out of school for different reasons. Many think high school drop-outs are students who chose to give up but there a reason to their failures in school. Students, who feel like failures, have low self esteem and mental health issues are likely to drop-out because school seems to be too frustrating and stressful to try. One out of four high school students are likely to drop-out .There are many risk factors to possible high school drop-out which are low academic achievement, mental health problems, truancy, poverty and teen pregnancy
Students with mental health problem, disabilities and depressed are at risk of dropping-out of high school because many of them have been in and out of school because of their sickness. When they come back to school they have a lot of catching –up to do and this leads to frustration. Most time they start acting up simply because they do not understand the material. When this continues it can lead to depression then drop-out of school. This frustration and stress overwhelms them and they may begin to give-up on their education. High school students with symptoms of truancy, retardation and low intelligence are at high risk of dropping out of school. Truancy is a symptom that comes from mental health problems and learning disabilities. This makes them to feel like a failure, act out and get them selves thrown out of school. These Students are labeled as lazy because they do not know how to function in school and school frustrates them and act out on their frustration.
The Socioeconomic Background of the parent affects some students and eventually they drop out to get a job to support the family. Many students from low income family drop out more because of the economic problem and their parent not meeting the demand of their schooling.
Some student skips school a lot of times for reasons that is not sickness or family emergency and there by leading to poor attendance in school. They will always be behind in class work and home work getting poor grades and this will lead to failure causing them to repeat a grade or that course .This will make them to fall behind their counterparts being in a lower grade. Causing them to feel bad about it, causing low self esteem and eventually dropping out. An analysis, conducted by the school board's division of testing found out that many students were dropping out of school because they were demoralized in their school performance by being held back and attending classes with younger students or because they were fearful of not passing stricter Regents tests.
According to Colleen Wilber, a spokeswoman for the alliance, dropouts are not only a school problem; however, it also affects the community and society in general. The students that drop out of school will become a nuisance to their community and society, a burden to the government and relative, ending up in jail, be coming single parents, stays on welfare for ever, will not have health insurance and with all other things going on around them. According to the group’s research, dropouts from the class of 2007 will cost the nation more than $320 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetime.
Something needs to be done to make sure that students are not dropping out of school. Teachers needs to be more caring and not biased, government need to provide money to make sure that students from low income homes gets the supply they need to be able to be in school.

CLOSING THE LEARNNING CENTERS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

In his article, published in Gazette Net, Mr. Moore reported that Maryland Superintendent Jerry D. Weast has accelerated the time line for closing the special education centers. Montgomery county public schools have eight learning centers that move and teach students at a slower pace, it has small class sizes to make sure that high and middle schools students with special need receives extra attention to master the curriculum and do well in school. It was noticed through many years of research and monitoring that the students in these centers are not doing well academically compared to their pairs in a regular classroom. In the light of the above, the superintendent of schools proposed to close down these centers and move the students to regular classrooms over a six-year periods to give room for successful transition. However, closing these centers will affect the teachers, students and parents.This move will help the special needs students to integrate in a normal classroom and learn with them, but the intention is very much to make the student fit the program rather than adapting the program to suit the student. Integration in the mainstream enables students with disabilities to benefit from the stimulation of mixing with relatively more able students and having the opportunity to observe higher models of social and academic behavior (Elkins, 1998). Students from both groups will have social interaction: mealtimes, playtime, and extracurricular activities. For this program to be successful there will be many interventions given to both the teachers and the students involved.Attitude of the teachers and the other students is very important for the success of the integration. Many teachers have negative attitude toward students with special needs and will not like to help them or have them in their classroom. The regular ED students need to receive lecture on the need to accommodate the special need students. They all need to tolerance and respect for each other.Another intervention will be training the regular Ed teachers on how to guide these students. Many teachers do not appear to have had any training in guidance and as such do not know how to help them For this to be effective teachers need to go for training especially paid training will motivate them and afterwards they need to be given time to learn and implement what they have learned.For this to be effective teachers need to use differentiated instructions, teaching methods and curricula will need to change in order to accommodate the diversity of students to be included in the regular classroom. Teachers need to tailor instructions to meet the learning needs of all the students in the classroom. However, according to the article this will be another burden on the teachers, who already have a lot of work at hand. Teachers will now start learning a lot about individual students and how to reach them.The report they are getting is that academic of the students that have been integrated has not improved or worsen, however, this is something that will take a gradual process .We, as educators must have a desire to teach all children. Although there is extra time in planning but it requires dedication from teachers to make sure that this students receive the education. We as educators need to have the interest of all students at heart and do everything possible to reach them for if the special needs are integrated successfully in regular classrooms the success is largely dependent upon positive attitudes of the teachers.