EDUCATION WEEK — Minnesota, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
All four states, who were among the 34 that turned in their plans this fall, were flagged for issues with accountability, helping low-performing schools improve, and other areas. So far, ten other states that turned in their plans this fall — Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming—have received feedback from the feds. Puerto Rico has also gotten a response on its plan. (Check out our summaries of their feedback here and here.)
Plus, sixteen states and the District of Columbia, all of which submitted plans in the spring, have gotten the all-clear from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Colorado, which asked for extra time on its application, is the only spring state still waiting for approval.
So what problems did the department find in this latest round of states? Here’s a quick look. Click on the state’s name for a link to the feds’ letter…
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) generate $14.8 billion in economic impact annually, according to a stunning new report by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).
The landmark study titled, “HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” said that public HBCUs account for $9.6 billion of that total economic impact, while private HBCUs account for $5.2 billion.
“The estimate includes direct spending by HBCUs on faculty, employees, academic programs and operations, and by students attending the institutions, as well as the follow-on effects of that spending,” the report said.
The combined economic impact is equivalent to a top 200 ranking on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.
“The presence of an HBCU means a boost to economic activity, on and off—and even well beyond—campus. Stronger growth, stronger communities, more jobs and a more talented workforce,” UNCF authors wrote in the report.
According to the UNCF report, Howard University generates $1.5 billion in total economic impact and 9,591 jobs for its local and regional economies.
“Every dollar spent by Howard University and its students produces positive economic benefits, generating $1.58 in initial and subsequent spending for its local and regional economies.
The study, conducted by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business Selig Center for Economic Growth, found that Hampton University generated $270 million in total economic impact and 2,249 jobs for its local and regional economies.
“For each job created on campus, another 1.7 public- and private-sector jobs are created off campus because of Hampton University-related spending,” study said. “Looked at in a different way: Each $1 million initially spent by Hampton University and its students creates 11 jobs.”
While Morehouse College generated a total economic impact of $188 Million and 1,580 jobs. Spelman College accounted for $199 million in total economic impact and 1,625 Jobs.
North Carolina A&T State University generated $488 million in total economic impact and 4,325 jobs for its local and regional economies.
“It’s the first time that we’ve had a study conducted by such a professional institution to recognize the importance of HBCUs and particularly the impact on our community,” Miles College President Dr. George T. French, Jr., told the NNPA Newswire. “We’ve talked in general terms, but to quantify this is important so that our partners can understand the value of our institution. It’s a win-win for our region and for government partners who look to partner with us.”
The report revealed that the 1,634-student Alabama school generated $67 million for its local region. Each $1 million initially spent by Miles College and its students creates 16 jobs, according to the report.
“It’s eye-opening and, in addition to the 730 jobs created, there’s a 1-to-1 match for every full-time job at Miles, we create another job in our region,” French said. “So, we have about 377 employees on campus, but because of that, we’ve created 350 off-campus jobs.”
The benefits flow to Miles College’s graduates, who’ll enter the workforce with sharper skills and vastly enhanced earning prospects, according to the report.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I’d like to take a moment to tell you how thankful I am for you and your work supporting schools and communities. I admire and appreciate your steadfast commitment to ensuring that the children of New York State receive a quality education . As parents, you make a real difference in your child’s learning — from reading with your child to helping your child with homework to spending time in your child’s classroom. It’s also National Family Week, a good time to recognize and support you and your families. I hope you will be able to spend time with your families this week and throughout the holiday season.
I’d like to share some updates from last week’s Board of Regents meeting, including NYSED’s partnership with the College Board and an announcement about the State Library’s summer reading program.
Last week, NYSED announced a partnership with the College Board to help students identify and prepare for a postsecondary program that best fits their needs. Through this partnership, NYSED will work with the College Board to expand student access to unique, personalized learning pathways, including free, Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The partnership builds upon the College Board’s ongoing work with school districts and BOCES across the state, including in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers, and New York City.
…on to our next question, which deals with ESSA funding. It comes from Sarah Boder, the director of policy & affiliate relations at the North American Association of Environmental Education.
Boder wants to know: “What’s the latest timeline for distribution of Title IVA funds to states? Are they able to receive funds as soon as their plans are approved? Do you have any sense of how many states will opt to administer those grants competitively, given the smaller appropriation?”
First off, what exactly is Title IV? And what does Boder mean by a “smaller appropriation”?
ESSA cut dozens of programs in the U.S. Department of Education and combined them into one giant block grant districts can use for everything from safety and health programs to arts education to Advanced Placement course fees. The program was supposed to get about $1.6 million annually, but Congress only provided $400 million for fiscal 2017. To help districts get more bang for their buck, lawmakers gave states the option to compete out the funds. They could also choose to dole them out by formula, with the goal of giving each district at least $10,000…
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.
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.
Nine states and the District of Columbia had turned in their state plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act as of Monday evening, according to an Education Week survey of states. One tricky issue states have to address in those plans is how to deal with schools where less than 95 percent of all students take required state exams.
Under ESSA, states are allowed to have laws on the books affirming parents’ right to opt their children out of these tests. But ESSA also requires that states administer these tests to all students with sanctions kicking in if the participation rate falls below 95 percent and meaningfully differentiate schools based on participation rate in some fashion. Just how states address this issue if the participation rate of all students (or a subgroup of students) at a particular school falls below 95 percent is up to them.
The opt-out movement sprang up in the last several years as part of a broader resistance to testing, and has been particularly strong in states like Colorado, New Jersey, and New York…
President Donald Trump repeated a few promises related to the Common Core State Standards and education governance from his 2016 campaign, and also praised Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, at a town hall of business executives in Washington on Tuesday.
In response to a question about college- and career readiness at the event, Trump sharply criticized the academic performance of students New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, while also praising charter schools. “I don’t call it an experiment any more. It’s far beyond an experiment,” he said of charters. (More on recent academic performance of students in Chicago and L.A. here.)
He then moved on to one of his key priorities for education: shifting control from federal to state and local leaders…
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the NYSPTA Annual Convention. Regent Collins also attended the convention and participated in the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Caucus. I want to thank Kyle Belokopitsky, Executive Director at the NYSPTA, and her team for organizing and hosting the convention, which included many important discussions. As Commissioner of Education, I strive to stay connected to those closest to our students: their parents and families. I admire and appreciate the work you do to ensure a high-quality education for all our students.
Last week, the New York State Museum opened a new exhibition, Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial . On display through May 13, 2018, the exhibition honors the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State and raises awareness of the struggle for equal rights through the present day. The exhibition features more than 250 artifacts and images from the collections of the State Museum, State Archives, State Library, cultural institutions, and private lenders from across the state.
It’s important for everyone – especially our students – to fully understand this pivotal moment in our history. The women’s suffrage movement in New York isn’t just about the struggle for women’s rights; it also teaches us about cultural heritage, activism, democracy, and the struggle for equal rights for all. It’s up to us to inspire the next generation and show our children that they too can raise their voices and achieve great things. If you can, I encourage you to visit the State Museum with your children and see this exhibition.
In addition to exposing your children to educational experiences at the State Museum or other cultural institutions, you might also be helping them navigate the college application and admission process! If you have a student enrolling in college for the spring semester, Governor Cuomo announced that the Excelsior Scholarship application has reopened for students attending college this spring. The application is open through December 4 for students to attend SUNY or CUNY tuition free.
This week, NYSED announced that seven New York State mathematics and science teachers are state-level finalists for the 2016-17 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) at the secondary level (grades 7-12). The PAEMST is one of the highest honors in the nation for teachers of mathematics and science. The award recognizes outstanding teaching and leadership in science and mathematics education. The teachers being recognized here have become masters of their craft, and our students are lucky to have them and all the other teachers who do an outstanding job every day in our classrooms. For more information and the list of finalists, see our PAEMST news release .
NYSED also recently announced that more than 95 percent of schools in receivership made demonstrable improvement in the 2016-17 school year. A total of 61 of 63 schools in receivership showed progress on performance indicators jointly selected by NYSED and the districts in which the schools are located. The two schools that did not make demonstrable improvement will now be placed under an independent receiver.
I have visited many of the schools in receivership, and I am seeing schools tackle their issues in new and positive ways, which is encouraging. At the same time, much work remains to be done in many of these schools to provide an even greater focus with more intensive interventions to ensure that progress in these schools accelerates and they improve their outcomes for students.
Finally, next week is American Education Week, a great opportunity to celebrate public education. As part of American Education Week, November 14 is Parents Day, and NYSED will join in the celebration by launching a campaign on social media. Be sure to follow NYSED on Twitter and Facebook to check out some ideas and tips for parents to help support your children in school.
Thank you for all you do to support strong family and community involvement in our schools. We have made it easier to subscribe to our parent email list, so please spread the word in your communities and help us all stay connected!
EDUCATION WEEK — Minnesota, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
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.
