Nationwide, there more than 6 million job openings according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Far too often, businesses say that there are not enough qualified applicants to fill their openings. Now, thanks to the nation’s main education law, there’s something that business can do to change that.
By requiring states and school districts to engage a variety of stakeholders, including business, as they develop plans to educate their students, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides an excellent opportunity for the business community. By working with states and school districts, the business community can help to shape policy to ensure that more students graduate from high school with the skills they need. In today’s economy, students need content knowledge, but they must also understand how to apply that knowledge across a variety of challenging tasks. They also need critical thinking, communications, collaboration, and other deeper learning competencies.
To help business leaders understand the key role they can play in helping students develop these skills, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives have developed a new fact sheet identifying three key areas within ESSA implementation where business can get involved.
First, business leaders can encourage states to include measures of college and career readiness as one of their indicators of school quality or student success. Examples include the percentage of students who enroll and perform in advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate or the percentage of students who enroll, persist, and complete postsecondary education. Louisiana’s ESSA plan includes a “strength of diploma” indicator that measures the quality of a student’s diploma while Tennessee uses a “ready graduate” indicator that incentivizes students to pursue postsecondary experiences while still in high school…
Download the fact sheet from Alliance for Excellent Education and Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives to learn more about these recommendations and how business leaders can get involved.
In 2011, Arizona became the first state to adopt the most flexible school reform yet, an education savings account (ESA) plan. It provides parents who believe their child is poorly served in the local public school with an annual budget they can spend on a wide variety of accredited alternatives—not just private or parochial schools, but tutoring, online academies, special-needs services, and even computer equipment for home schooling.
More recently, five other states have followed Arizona’s lead: Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, and just this year North Carolina. Initially these programs were designed to better serve learning-disabled children, but with the realization that most of its students could be educated independently for a fraction of public-school per pupil spending, Nevada authorized a plan open to any of that state’s children in 2015.
To date, Democrats in the Nevada legislature have held up funding for about 10,000 applicants, but nearly all of Arizona’s K-12 children are now eligible for an ESA worth 90 percent of their district’s per pupil spending.
With this history in mind, Marty Lueken, director of fiscal policy and analysis at the EdChoice Foundation, and I decided to calculate how much ESAs could help a financially troubled blue state, where the longstanding alliance of teacher unions and liberal politicians has created per pupil costs that are three, four, and even five times what is needed to independently educate. Our goal was to see how much the taxpayers of Illinois, New Jersey, Kentucky, California, or Connecticut might benefit if just a small percentage of public school families were funded to take charge of their own children’s schooling…
Top education and business leaders and others will highlight business partnerships that focus on apprenticeships, work-based learning practices and best practices focused on employer-engagement at a Nov. 27 forum tied to Kentucky’s participation in a national New Skills for Youth (NSFY) Initiative. See news release below for further information.
CHICAGO – Libraries are taking a proactive approach toward engaging parents and caregivers in supporting the early literacy development of their children, and the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® (ECRR) Program is an excellent tool to ensure libraries’ success. These were two of the key findings of a study released this month by Dr. Susan B. Neuman, a professor of childhood education and literacy development at New York University.
ECRR is based on two core concepts: reading begins at birth, and parents are a child’s first and best teacher. Currently more than 6,000 libraries have invested in the ECRR Toolkit, which is used to implement ECRR in the library.
In 2013, the Public Library Association (PLA) and Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to conduct a national study on the effect of library programming on parent behavior and engagement using the ECRR model. From 2013-2016, the research team – consisting of Neuman, Naomi Moland, and Donna Celano – observed and evaluated storytime programs at 57 library branches representing 36 different library systems across the country. From that group, 20 target libraries were selected for the study—ten that were deemed to be strong implementers of the ECRR curriculum, and ten that were not. Neuman et. al. observed significantly greater engagement of parents and caregivers in the libraries that used the ECRR program: these libraries offered more opportunities for parents and children to interact, more parents-only workshops, and more diverse program offerings.
“Libraries are emerging as community centers that promote family engagement, thus serving an important mission of fostering school readiness for children in many communities,” the report reads. “Libraries are playing a particularly vital role as resource brokers, helping to connect parents with services and resources, as well as a space for parents and children to work on literacy skills.”
A 2016 survey of city and county managers highlighted early childhood education as one of the top three community priorities in which local government leaders see public libraries playing an important role. ECRR enables libraries of all sizes to better equip families to succeed as early childhood education providers.
“Our library was an early adopter of Every Child Ready to Read, and we’ve been very happy with the curriculum, resources, and marketing materials that support the program,” says Clara Bohrer, director of the West Bloomfield Township (Mich.) Public Library. “For our staff, ECRR has helped create a ‘springboard’ for new ideas and practices that we use in engaging families and strengthening early literacy programming.”
ECRR is the foundation upon which PLA has established its Family Engagement Initiative. The term “family engagement” refers to the shared responsibility among families, educators, and communities to support children’s learning and development. By implementing ECRR and other family engagement strategies into their programming, PLA encourages its member libraries to form respectful partnerships that offer the information, guidance, and opportunities for families to be active in their children’s learning and development.
“Public libraries across the U.S. are embracing their role as the community’s hub for early literacy,” says PLA Executive Director Barb Macikas. “PLA and our partner, the Association for Library Service to Children, are thrilled to confirm that our Every Child Ready to Read® (ECRR) @ your library® Program is having the desired effect by helping libraries engage parents and caregivers to be their children’s first, and best, teachers.”
“This report further validates the importance of the early literacy work librarians do every day,” adds ALSC President Nina Lindsay, a children’s services librarian at Oakland (Calif.) Public Library. “Our job now is to make sure communities are aware of the strong literacy development available in their neighborhood libraries.”
Click here to download Bringing Literacy Home: An Evaluation of the Every Child Ready to Read Program.
About PLA The Public Library Association (PLA) is the largest association dedicated to supporting the unique and evolving needs of public library professionals. Founded in 1944, PLA serves nearly 9,000 members in public libraries large and small in communities across the United States and Canada, with a growing presence around the world. PLA strives to help its members shape the essential institution of public libraries by serving as an indispensable ally for public library leaders. For more information about PLA, contact the PLA office at 1 (800) 545-2433, ext.5PLA, or pla@ala.org.
The New Mexico Legislative Education Study Commission (LESC) is meeting in Santa Fe this week, and much of the agenda is dedicated to learning about high quality systems of career and technical education (CTE), both abroad and in the United States.
This Wednesday, members of the New Mexico LESC had the opportunity to learn about one state’s innovative approach to implementing a modern youth-apprenticeship system: Colorado’s CareerWise. CareerWise is a nongovernmental, nonprofit intermediary that is rooted in a strong partnership between business, community, government and education.
CareerWise high school apprentices spend three days a week at school and two days a week at their apprenticeship sites, where they earn at least minimum wage. More than 40 Colorado employers have hired student apprentices to work in four different career paths including advanced manufacturing, information technology, financial services and business operations. Only about 100 students are participating in CareerWise’s first cohort, but the organization has an expansion strategy to reach 10 percent of all Colorado high school students within its 10th year…
November 16, 2017 – The Georgia Department of Education has received a grant that will provide $61.5 million to improve reading and literacy outcomes for Georgia’s children.
GaDOE’s Literacy for Learning, Living and Leading in Georgia (L4GA) initiative was awarded funding through the Striving Readers grant, which was developed to serve children in need. Georgia has been awarded $20,526,600 per year over three years, totaling $61,579,800. Georgia received more Striving Readers funding than any other state, and was one of just three states to receive the funding a second time after the initial grant cycle from 2011-2016.
Ninety-five percent of the grant funding will be sub-granted to local school districts and communities to develop partnerships specifically aimed at improving reading and literacy outcomes for Georgia’s children, from birth to grade 12. Specifically, the sub-grants will be awarded to school districts that work collaboratively with community partners and teacher preparation programs.
The L4GA initiative was developed based on lessons learned through Georgia’s previous Striving Readers grant (2011-16) and the Get Georgia Reading campaign.
“Nothing is more important than making sure all students have the literacy skills they need to succeed academically and in life,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “To make that happen, we have to build upon a foundation of early learning that connects all the way through high school graduation and builds in community partnerships — because we know that what happens inside the school building is not the only factor that impacts students’ literacy. This grant allows us to invest directly in local communities to improve literacy outcomes and directly impact the lives of thousands of students.”
The goal of L4GA is to improve student literacy learning, teacher delivery of instruction, school climate and culture, and academic outcomes across all subgroups of children, from birth to grade 12. Districts will build community partnerships that ensure early care and learning in ways that prepare literacy learners, and all sub-grant recipients will align interventions within a feeder system (including birth-age 5 childcare providers and elementary, middle, and high schools). GaDOE is required to ensure that evidence plays a central role in each sub-grant. Districts’ applications will be competitively scored by a panel of expert reviewers.
The Georgia Department of Education will coordinate sub-grants, facilitate all participating partners, conduct an evaluation of the initiative, and utilize data to create improvements on an on-going basis. In addition, GaDOE will work with partners from successful classrooms, Regional Educational Service Agencies, teacher educators and researchers with expertise in targeted areas for improvement to provide professional learning opportunities for school leaders and teachers. These efforts will build upon other important initiatives, including the ongoing work to ensure that positive learning climates exist in all schools, students have access to print and digital resources, and teachers have peers and school leaders who can give meaningful feedback that improves instruction.
“Georgia’s literacy outcomes have been improving for 10 years. We have much to be proud of; however, we must accelerate the pace of improvement if all of our students are to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for their future success,” said Dr. Caitlin McMunn Dooley, GaDOE’s Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. “This grant offers a tremendous opportunity for schools and communities to work closely together to identify student needs and meet those needs in measurable ways. Together, we can fulfill the promise that each and every child in the state will be on a path to reading and writing proficiently.”
A new report from The Education Trust-New York shows that many Black and Brown students are taught by people who don’t look like them.
The report, titled “See Our Truth,” shows that although Black and Latino residents represent 43 percent of New York State’s K-12 enrollment, only 16 percent of teachers in the state are Latino or Black.
According to The Education Trust-New York, an organization devoted to closing the achievement gap in schools, more than 115,000 Latino and Black students (10 percent) attend schools with no teachers of the same race/ethnicity and another 80,000 Latino and Black students (7 percent) attend schools with only one teacher of the same race/ethnicity.
As for white students, more than 560,000 of them (48 percent) are enrolled in schools without any Black or Latino teachers, and 977,000 white students (84 percent) attend schools without a Black or Latino principal or assistant principal.
“New York’s educator workforce does not come close to representing the rich diversity of the state’s students, leaving many Latino and Black students without access to teachers or school leaders of the same race or ethnicity,” said Ian Rosenblum, executive director of The Education Trust–New York, in a statement. “The critical role that strong teachers and school leaders play in student success is central to closing achievement and opportunity gaps, and New York should improve the educator preparation pipeline, strengthen supports for educators of color and make schools more inclusive environments in order to better serve our students and educators.”
The report, which is based on unpublished school-level data, interviews and focus groups with students and educators of color, detailed the importance of being taught by someone who looks like you.
“I think it was when I heard my first Black teacher in sixth grade that I changed as a student and really opened up and owned my own voice,” said Danitra, a New York City education nonprofit administrator and former teacher, in the report. “My seventh-grade teacher was a Black man who would always say stuff like, ‘Oh, my gosh your braids are so fly.’ That affirmation, that totally changed the game for me in terms of how I interacted in educational spaces.”
“It’s really important for children of color to see people like them in places of power and leadership so that they can aspire to those positions,” added Veronica, a New York City school leader, in the report.
Schools with a Latino or Black principal are more likely to have a greater share of Latino and Black teachers and to have higher enrollment of students of color and low-income students, the report states.
One student interviewed said students might hold back because “they see teachers they can’t relate to.”
The report recommends “strengthening the educator preparation pipeline for future teachers and school leaders of color,” “improving recruitment and hiring at the school district level” and “focusing greater attention on retention, support and career advancement for educators of color.”
Most states are not planning to do enough to prevent low-income students and students of color from being disproportionately taught by ineffective or inexperienced teachers, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The Every Student Succeed Acts requires that states define “ineffective” and “inexperienced” teachers in their federally required plans, and describe ways they’ll ensure that low-income and nonwhite students aren’t being taught by these teachers at higher rates than their peers.
NCTQ, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, today released new analyses of 34 states’ plans, following its analyses of 16 states and the District of Columbia, which was released in June. In that earlier round, the group found a few bright spots, including New Mexico and Tennessee.
NCTQ looked at these metrics in its analyses:
How do states define inexperienced and ineffective teachers? NCTQ recommends that states define an inexperienced teacher as someone with two or fewer years of experience. An ineffective teacher should be defined by using “objective measures of student learning and growth” (like student test scores).
What data are states using? NCTQ advises states to report student-level data, and consider whether there are additional student subgroups that might have educator equity gaps.
When will states eliminate identified educator equity gaps? NCTQ calls for states to make publicly available timelines and interim targets for eliminating the gaps.
What are states’ strategies to target identified equity gaps? NCTQ says that specific strategies should be developed with stakeholder input and be evaluated over time.
(It’s important to note that these are not specified by the federal law; they are NCTQ’s interpretation of what states should be doing under ESSA.)…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
Black college database The Hundred-Seven has published a list of public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that are recognized for their affordability. The 16 colleges have been identified because of their lower overall costs (before and after financial aid packages) compared to other similar colleges- in state and out-of-state.
The entire list of colleges can be found on the Hundred-Seven’s website. Among the schools on the list are Alcorn State University in Mississippi, Fort Valley State University in Georgia and Southern University and A&M College in Louisiana.
Even with the current “HBCU Renaissance” many experts say is going on as a result of the current political climate, some families remain resistant about sending their child to a Black college over concerns of cost. Students living in areas where there are no HBCUs are often faced with paying out-of-state tuition. Many of the schools on The Hundred-Seven list have low out-of-state tuition rates and are recognized nationally for their value.
The Hundred-Seven was founded by educator, historian and HBCU expert, Leslie D.W. Jones to promote higher education through HBCUs. The website highlights the accomplishments of HBCU’s and their alumni along with the only online searchable database that features every academic program offered by every Black college.
CHICAGO – Libraries are taking a proactive approach toward engaging parents and caregivers in supporting the early literacy development of their children, and the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® (ECRR) Program is an excellent tool to ensure libraries’ success. These were two of the key findings of a study released this month by Dr. Susan B. Neuman, a professor of childhood education and literacy development at New York University.
A new report from The Education Trust-New York shows that many Black and Brown students are taught by people who don’t look like them.
Most states are not planning to do enough to prevent low-income students and students of color from being disproportionately taught by ineffective or inexperienced teachers, 
Black college database The Hundred-Seven has published a list of public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that are recognized for their affordability. The 16 colleges have been identified because of their lower overall costs (before and after financial aid packages) compared to other similar colleges- in state and out-of-state.