Archive for May 4th, 2008

Black Helicopter Parents

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 4, 2008 in Education Practice and Parents. 0 Comments

Helicopter parent? Why merely hover over your child when technology will let you be a black helicopter parent?

The New York Times looks at computer programs that provide daily, real-time data on kids’ in-school performance, from attendance to test scores. Programs like Edline, ParentConnect, Pinnacle Internet Viewer and PowerSchool are “changing the nature of communication between parents and children, families and teachers,” reports the Times. “Citing studies showing that parental involvement can have a positive effect on a child’s academic performance, educators praise the programs’ capacity to engage parents.”

What did you learn in school today? Forget it. Now you can know before your kid walks in the door.

On school days at 2 p.m., Nicole Dobbins walks into her home office in Alpharetta, Ga., logs on to ParentConnect, and reads updated reports on her three children. Then she rushes up the block to meet the fourth and sixth graders’ buses. But in the thump and tumble of backpacks and the gobbling of snacks, Mrs. Dobbins refrains from the traditional after-school interrogation: Did you cut math class? What did you get on your language arts test?

“Thanks to ParentConnect, she already knows the answers. And her children know she knows. So she cuts to the chase: “Tell me about this grade,” she will say. When her ninth grader gets home at 6 p.m., there may well be ParentConnect printouts on his bedroom desk with poor grades highlighted in yellow by his mother. She will expect an explanation. He will be braced for a punishment. “He knows I’m going to look at ParentConnect every day and we will address it,” Mrs. Dobbins said.

At best, the programs can help kids stay on top of things and act as an early warning system for trouble. At worst, it’s another lever for over-anxious parents to pull. “At an age when teenagers increasingly want to manage their own lives, many parents use these programs to tighten the grip,” notes the Times. “College admission is so devastatingly competitive, parents say, they feel compelled to check online grades frequently. Parents hope to transform even modest dips before a child’s record is irrevocably scarred.”

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Correcting the Student: A Quiet Argument

Published by Diana Senechal on May 4, 2008 in Education Practice, Essay and Teaching. 4 Comments

When I was in kindergarten, my teachers were worried about me because I never brought my paintings home. When my parents asked me why I didn’t, I told them that the paintings weren’t good. This horrified the teachers, who had marked “Great!” on every single one of them (I can still see the handwriting). I knew the paintings weren’t great, and didn’t know how to make them better. No one at school was willing to teach me.

Fast-forward thirty-eight years to a professional development session on the arts in education. We are provided with long sheets of chart paper and instructed to trace and then portray each other, in groups of two or three. We have about thirty minutes to complete this slipshod activity. When this is done, we hang the portraits around the room and circulate for a “gallery walk.” We are given Post-its for making observations, not criticisms. Observation is greater than judgment, we are told. I feel ill. My horrible drawing must now endure cheery “observations.” I want to go home.

Extremist doctrines tumble upon teachers continually, in education programs, training sessions, and so-called literature. Today I will examine a recurring shibboleth: “Teachers should not correct student errors explicitly.” Trainers and administrators discourage correction for at least three reasons: (1) they are concerned for the students’ self-esteem and self-celebration; (2) they believe that correction could exacerbate existing inequities in the classroom; and (3) they are anxious about the difficulties and uncertainties inherent in correction.

I have dealt with anti-correction dogma on numerous occasions. I have been told not to mark up a student’s sacrosanct compositions, but to write comments on post-its (which, of course a student is entitled to throw away). On one occasion, the facilitator of a PD session said, “As a constructivist I don’t believe in telling a student, ‘that’s right,’ because that would invalidate another student’s answer.” I have visited classes with “Socratic Seminars” or “cooperative learning” in which the student discussions got muddled and the teacher refused to intervene.

Continue reading ‘Correcting the Student: A Quiet Argument’

Required Reading

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 4, 2008 in Weekly Roundup. 0 Comments

Our weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest to the Core Knowledge community.

Best of the Blogs

Social Justice Teaching at Eduwonkette
Sol Stern, Bill Ayers, Diane Ravitch, yours truly and a cast of dozens debate what it means to teach for “social justice.” Another reason to love edublogs. Where else would this happen?

Choice is a Winner at Joanne Jacobs
School choice works and it’s politically viable.

Ability grouping may matter most for gifted black kids at Gifted Exchange
The average academic performance at an average predominantly black school is lower than the average academic performance at a predominantly white school. This affects all children, but it affects one particular group in a particularly horrible way: gifted black students.

Low ability teachers, low ability students? at Dangerously Irrelevant
Almost a fourth of teachers with high college entrance exams leave the profession within a decade, compared to 11% of individuals with low scores.

A child miseducated is a child lost at The Fierce Urgency of Now
Let us stop bickering. Let us stop with these useless partisan fights. And let us commit to not lose another child in America.

Teaching, Content and Curriculum

Searching for Science to Guide Good Teaching
By Maria Glod, Washington Post
The Bush administration’s chief of education research says teachers too often rely on “folk wisdom” instead of proven methods to help students learn reading and math.

An Initiative on Reading Is Rated Ineffective
By Sam Dillon, The New York Times
President Bush’s $1 billion a year effort to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to the Department of Education.

Schools Use Cash as an Incentive to Boost Attendance and Scores
By Sean J. Miller, Christian Science Monitor
Baltimore schools teach students about the stock market and let them keep money from their portfolios. Are cash rewards bribery or a creative way to inspire students?

Value of college tuition is called into question
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA Today
As college tuitions continue to climb, a study fuels concern about whether the investment in higher education by families and taxpayers transltes into better results.

Oregon science teacher honored as 2008 teacher of the year
By Matthew Daly, The Associated Press
Oregon middle school teacher Michael Geisen got to meet President Bush Wednesday when he was celebrated as the national teacher of the year

Education Policy

Districts Experiment With Cutting Down on Teacher Absence
By Bess Keller, Education Week
With new evidence that teacher absences harm student achievement, some districts are experimenting with attempts to cut down on the absences.

Big gains in U.S. education reform, but holes remain
By Jennifer Davis, National Center on Time and Learning, USA Today
“A Nation at Risk” called for the U.S. to consider moving to a seven-hour school day and a 220-day year. A quarter-century later, most American schools operate on the same schedules as they did in 1983–less time in school than many of their international counterparts.

Judge Dismisses Connecticut’s Challenge to Education Law
By SAM DILLON, The New York Times
A federal judge ruled that Connecticut failed to prove that federal officials had forced the state to spend its own money to comply with President Bush’s signature education law.

Teachers, Testing, & Civil Disobedience
Teacher Magazine
Educators debate Seattle teacher Carl Chew’s refusal to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Debate on teacher pay bill turns ugly
By Jason Rosenbaum and Janese Heavin, the Columbia Tribune
Lawmakers come to blows in the state Capitol over legislation meant to boost teacher salaries in Missouri.

Parenting and Homeschooling

Keeping Our Daughters Active
By Sanjay Gupta, M.D., TIME Magazine
Although girls’ participation in organized sports is on the rise, adolescent girls are only half as likely as teen boys to be physically active.

Truancy up despite fines for parents
By Graeme Paton, The Telegraph (U.K.)
Fines for parents who fail to send their children to school are failing to cut truancy

Homeschooling an option
By Tatiana Tripp, The Justice (Brandeis University)
To believe that every homeschooled child is sheltered, lacking social opportunities or indoctrinated with religion is ignorant and yet remains a prevalent belief among otherwise intelligent individuals.

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