District Administration - February 2008 - (Page 22)

BRIEFINGS InsidetheLaw States Try Out Remodeled NCLB Assessments WITH CONGRESS STYMIED IN its eﬀorts to rewrite the controversial No Child Left Behind law, which turned six last month, the Department of Education is attempting to create more ﬂexibility within the legislation in terms of gauging student performance. As of February, eligible states can apply to take part in the DOE’s growth model pilot program. Rather than measure the performance of groups of students, as NCLB does currently, growth models track the progress of individual students. Participating states will use both methods so the DOE can determine if growth models elicit more accurate information. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings hopes broadening the federal law’s scope will allow states another way to measure individual student progress. “Our work on reauthorization has shown broad bipartisan support for growth models, and now many states have improved data systems so they can track individual student growth over time,” Spellings said in a statement in December. The growth model pilot program was ﬁrst initiated in 2005. Nine states— Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee—have tried it out. “Some combination of models may be an appropriate measure,” says Les Morse, director of assessments and accountability for Alaska’s department of education. Morse believes that Alaska’s eﬀorts to gather student information under both models will have one unequivocal result: “We can make more decisions based on better evidence.” —Steven Scarpa By Zach Miners Putting Family Life to the Test SOCIAL FACTORS OUTSIDE school districts’ control strongly inﬂuence student achievement gaps that appear in kindergarten and persist through high school, says a new report from the Educational Testing Service. Drawn from academic research, databases and surveys, the report examined numerous social factors aﬀecting early school achievement and accountability calculations under the federal No Child Left Behind law. The report, entitled “The Family: America’s Smallest School,” concludes that two-thirds of diﬀerences in eighthgrade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress could be predicted by the percentages of children under age 18 who live with one parent, of children age 5 or younger whose parents read to them every day, of eighth-graders who missed three or more school days in a single month, and of eighth-graders who watch ﬁve or more hours of television in a school day. “What happens in schools is very important, but what happens outside schools is also very important,” says the report’s co-author Richard J. Coley. The report’s authors encourage educational leaders to take action to address some of the various social inequities. For example, Coley says, school districts could emphasize to parents the importance of limiting television watching, or provide adult literacy programs to nonEnglish-ﬂuent parents to help them read to their children. —Kevin Butler District Administration Abstinence-Only Funds Ignite Debate AMID THE WHIRLPOOL OF FORCES PULLING AT TEENS THAT include pop culture and the tribulations of celebrities, Congress and the Bush administration are pushing hard for “abstinence-only” education. But a growing number of states are ﬂat-out rejecting the federal programs, saying they don’t work. States are divided on what they want taught in sex ed: 14 require abstinence and contraception; 19 require only abstinence; and 17 leave it to their local school boards. “The governors are saying, ‘We in the states are doing the right thing by giving teens the information they need to prevent an unintended pregnancy,’” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood The 2007 ﬁlm Juno, about a girl dealing with pregnancy. Federation of America, in a recent CBS interview. SOUNDING OFF “NCLB currently does little to address the nation’s middle and high schools, and until a bill is reauthorized that includes the interventions and supports these schools and their students need, the educational system will continue to fail millions of American students each year.” —Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education 22 February 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2008

District Administration - February 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Security Update
Virtual Schools Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
The “Other” Advanced Program
State of the Superintendency
Landing the Chief
Purchasing Security Products and Services
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Overheard on the Pulse
New Products
Problem Solution
Computer Literature
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - February 2008