CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) is accepting nominations for the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Author/Illustrator Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is named for award-winning children’s author Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002), recipient of the 1983, 1986 and 1996 Coretta Scott King Book Award, 1974 National Book Award and the 1975 John Newbery Medal. In 1994, she was awarded the prestigious Hans Christian Anderson Author Award for the body of her work and was named a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1995.
The award pays tribute to the quality and magnitude of Hamilton’s exemplary contributions through her literature and advocacy for children and youth, especially in her focus on African-American life, history and consciousness. Authors, illustrators or author/illustrators will be honored in even-numbered years, while practitioners will be recognized in odd-numbered years. Previous recipients of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Author/Illustrator Lifetime Achievement Award include Jerry Pinkney, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack and Ashley Bryan.
The Author/Illustrator Award honors an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution. The body of work selected must represent distinguished writing and/or illustrations by and about the African American experience for children and/or young adults over a period of time. Committee members may also pay particular attention to bodies of work whose interpretation consistently motivates youth readers to stretch their imagination and thinking; that denote exceptional examples of specific types of literature; and that represent trend-setters, innovations or fresh explorations of themes or topics or perspectives in African American literature for children and/or young adult. The body of work must include at least one CSK Award winner (Author, Illustrator, New Talent winner or Honor Book for either category).
All nominees must be living at the time of the award to be considered. The winning recipient will be announced during the ALA Youth Media Awards during the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 in Denver. The winner will be honored at the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Breakfast during the 2018 ALA Annual Convention Conference in New Orleans and will receive a medal and a $1,500 cash award.
Nominations will be accepted through Monday, Dec. 4, 2017. The winning recipient will be notified on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 during ALA Midwinter. To view the Award criteria and submit a nomination, please visit http://www.ala.org/emiert/cskhamilton-submit.
The recipient will be selected by a five-member award jury from the Coretta Scott King- Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Committee of the Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT). The award is administered by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of EMIERT and is supported by the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services.
The Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award is part of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, which honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults that demonstrate sensitivity to “the African American experience via literature and illustration.” The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to work for peace and world brotherhood.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) received an update on the SecondLaunch Initiative at its October board meeting. The initiative, which was created by the West Virginia Department of Education in June 2015, continues to expand its reach, providing much needed technology to students throughout the state. Now, in its third year, SecondLaunch has saved the state $3 million in technology costs and has provided more than 8,000 computers to students in 47 counties.
Computers and other technology equipment are donated to SecondLaunch from West Virginia government agencies as well as private industry. Equipment is then wiped, cleaned and upgraded to meet the requirements of the programs used in schools. Computers, monitors, keyboards and mice are packaged together for ease of use and assembly, and schools can pick the computers up at the SecondLaunch warehouse in Charleston.
“Through the SecondLaunch Initiative, we are working to ensure that all students have access to technology and resources they need” said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Steven Paine. “Our goal is to have the program in all 55 counties, and work with educators to make sure that a lack of resources is never an obstacle for educators to provide the best education possible for our students.”
In addition to state agencies, private industry has also joined in and donated equipment to SecondLaunch.
“The program’s success depends on the donations we receive,” said David Cartwright, who oversees the program. “We have been fortunate to form a partnership with Toyota Motor Manufacturing in West Virginia, who has become a generous and recurring participant. Our hope is to expand our private partnerships so we can continue to see the program grow.”
SecondLaunch helps students interact with the technology they will encounter in life after high school, whether it be college or the workforce. Some of the state’s earliest learners also have access to the SecondLaunch materials, allowing West Virginia students to utilize 21st century learning resources every day.
When asked to share part of her writing process, fourth grade Wisconsin student, Aster Anderson focused on her love for animals. She also kept her audience in mind as she detailed, “I made a new paragraph to divide it up so people can see what they would like to read about most.”
Aster participated in the Wisconsin Writes series, which, before this year, featured professional writers from across the state. For the 2017-18 school year, the series will feature student writers, celebrating their talents, viewpoints, and passion for writing. Aster is the first student to share her writing process for the year.
Aster’s advice for students about writing surrounds the importance of reading what you write. She says she likes to “read it over after I’m done. I like to go back and look at stuff. If I make a mistake and keep on going I can go back and look at it in the end.”
You can find Aster’s videos on the Wisconsin Writes Department of Public Instruction web page. The first video is of her writing process, where she writes about baboons, focusing on factual information and structure. In Aster’s second video, she answers interview questions about writing, concentrating mainly on revision and editing, with the biggest focus on spelling and punctuation.
Questions about Wisconsin Writes?
For more information and to follow the series featuring students this year, go to: https://dpi.wi.gov/wisconsin-writes.
Contact Marci Glaus, English Language Arts Consultant for additional information.
The Wisconsin Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Talent Search is an annual competition for middle and high school students from Wisconsin. The organizers create five problem sets each consisting of five unusual and challenging math problems. The solution of these problems does not require advanced mathematical knowledge, just hard work and creativity. The participants have one month to work on each problem set and can send in their solutions via email or regular mail.
Top problem solvers will be invited to participate in the Honors Day Celebration in May, 2018 and will be eligible to compete in the Van Vleck Scholarship. The scholarship will pay $6,000 per year for four years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
The first problem set is now available online. Please visit the Talent Search website to access the problems and additional information. If you have any questions about the Talent Search, feel free to contact the organizers at talent@math.wisc.edu.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today released the following statement on the announcement of new members to the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion.
“Apprenticeships have the potential to offer America’s students the hands-on education needed for today’s in-demand jobs, and expanding these opportunities will prepare them for success in the 21st century economy,” said Secretary DeVos. “As a Vice Chair of the Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion, I am excited to be part of this Administration’s efforts to strengthen workforce readiness and increase the number of postsecondary pathways available to students. I look forward to working with state and local educators, business and industry leaders and other key stakeholders as we continue our work to put the needs of America’s students and businesses first.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is being removed from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district.
The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book’s language “makes people uncomfortable.”
Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town.
A message on the school’s website says “To Kill A Mockingbird” teaches students that compassion and empathy don’t depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.
Two studies published by Education Next (EdNext) … conclude that parents seem to be happier with their children’s schools when they are able to choose them.
The first study was an analysis of data from the 2012 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey, which was given to a representative sample of 17,166 households. In the survey, the US Department of Education asked parents about their satisfaction with their child’s school. While the data was collected in 2012, it had never been published until the EdNext analysis.
The data showed that the percentage of parents who were “very satisfied” with their children’s schools was higher for parents with students in schools of choice—including charter schools (63 percent), district schools of choice (61 percent), and private schools (81 percent)—than for parents with students assigned to a specific district school (56 percent).
The second study reported on the results of a first-of-its-kind parent satisfaction poll that EdNext conducted last summer, with a representative sample of 1,500 parents. Across all surveyed categories, except “location of school”, the data showed that more chartered school parents were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” than district parents. Similarly, private school parents were more satisfied across all categories than district parents.
The two studies support the hypothesis posed that, “to maintain and enlarge their market share, all schools of choice must satisfy the families who make use of them.” And the consistency between the two is important, according to Paul Peterson, an author on both studies, because “even though [the two surveys] had somewhat different methodologies our findings are surprisingly consistent.”
The findings of these two studies are also consistent with overall national American attitudes towards choice and chartering. Last year’s PDK/Gallup Poll showed nearly two-thirds of Americans are in favor of charter schools, and of permitting parents to select any public school in their district.
Education Evolving
Originally Published, January 4, 2017
For the past five months, we have followed the development of Minnesota’s state accountability plan as mandated by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While the US Department of Education (USDE) has defined what must be included in four of the plans’ required indicators, states have the freedom to choose which measures they will include in their fifth indicator, of school quality/student success (SQ/SS).
As we’ve previously written, because of the lack of available data, chronic absenteeism was identified by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) as the only SQ/SS measure that’s currently feasible for Minnesota. However, on November 29th, USDE extended ESSA implementation by one year, giving MDE’s Advisory Committee additional time to create a well-rounded SQ/SS indicator that would, ideally, include more than chronic absenteeism.
While most states have not released their ESSA draft plans, thirteen have—Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and North Carolina, however, do not define what possible SQ/SS measures their state will use.
All of the other states, except South Carolina, indicated that they intend to use chronic absenteeism as one of their SQ/SS measures; with Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, and Washington using it only for elementary and middle schools.
Two SQ/SS measures were prominent throughout the state’s draft plans—Career and College Readiness and 9th Grade On-Track. Below are descriptions of the measures.
College and Career Readiness Measure
Seven states—Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington—have some form of a College and Career Readiness measure that calculates a school’s performance on or access to Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), SAT, ACT, Career and Technical Education (CTE), and Dual Enrollment.
South Carolina’s measure is more complex, with high schools earning points based on the percentage of students who meet the College Ready/Career Ready benchmark, which is comprised of several different metrics, such as earning a 3 or higher on an AP exam or meeting ACT benchmarks in mathematics (22) and English (18).
Similarly, Tennessee’s measure, Ready Graduate, is calculated by multiplying the graduation rate and the highest percentage of students who do one of the following:
Score a 21+ on the ACT OR
Complete 4 Early Postsecondary Opportunities (EPSOs) OR
Complete 2 EPSOs and earn an industry certification
Washington’s measure is more prescriptive. It only has a metric for dual credit participation, which is measured by the percent of students who participate in a dual credit educational program.
Delaware is the only state whose measure includes a metric for elementary and middle schools. Specifically, Delaware uses a “growth to proficiency” metric, which measures the percentage of students on track to be at grade level in a given content area within three years.
Minnesota initially considered including a College and Career Readiness measure, but due to insufficient and misaligned data systems, the Technical Committee decided at the October 25th meeting to delay its inclusion.
9th Grade On-Track Measure
Three states—Illinois, Oregon, and Washington—indicated in their draft plans that they intended to use 9th-grade on track as a measure, which is the percent of first-time 9th grade students in a high school who do not fail a course.
Other SQ/SS Measures
Illinois: Early childhood education, which would be measured by kindergarten transition, pre-literacy activities, and academic gains. Unfortunately, the draft plan did not flesh out what “kindergarten transition” would measure, but it did indicate that it might not be ready for the 2017-18 academic year.
Illinois’ plan indicated that they may also use a school climate survey. Currently, Illinois uses the 5Essentials survey, which was developed at the University of Chicago and measures a school’s effectiveness in the following five areas:
Effective Leaders
Collaborative Teachers
Involved Families
Supportive Environments
Ambitious Instruction
Louisiana: Their ESSA Framework included a comprehensive list of SQ/SS measures that were divided into four categories:
Mastery of Fundamental Skills
Serving Historically Disadvantaged Students
Fair and Equitable Access to Enriching Experiences
Celebrating and Strengthening the Teaching Profession
Louisiana’s entire list of SQ/SS measures can be found here.
South Carolina: An “Effective Learning Environment Student Survey”, which would be administered every January to students in grades 4-12 and would include 29 items that measure topics on equitable learning, high expectations, supportive learning, active learning, progress monitoring and feedback, digital learning, and well-managed learning.
We will continue to report on ESSA updates in Minnesota and the country. MDE’s next ESSA Accountability meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 5th from 5:30-8:00 PM. For more information about MDE’s ESSA implementation plan, visit their website.
Education and the Media – Education Week — Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative journalist known for her deep dives exploring race and the resegregation of the nation’s public schools, has been named a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, the so-called genius grants awarded in an anonymous process.
“I’ve known for about a month,” Hannah-Jones said Wednesday, one day after being named among 24 in the 2017 group announced by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “You basically get a call out of the blue, and then you can only tell one person. I told my husband.”
The foundation said Hannah-Jones’ work chronicles “the demise of racial integration efforts and persistence of segregation in American society, particularly in education.”
“She combines analyses of historical, academic, and policy research with moving personal narratives to bring into sharp relief a problem that many are unwilling to acknowledge still exists and its tragic consequences for African American individuals, families, and communities,” the foundation continued…
