Ah, lawsuits. They’re the American way, yes? Isn’t that why we have warning labels covering any and all exposed surfaces, objects and situations? Someone manages to win their lawsuit against McDonald’s because it turns out the hot coffee they ordered was really effing hot, so now every to-go cup in the nation has extra ink warning us all that hot fluids are hot and moving through the world with them could lead to spillage down one’s person.

Ridiculous lawsuits piss me off and trigger the same gut reaction I have whenever I hear that George W. guy pretending to be our fearless leader: I wish for a hole or a rock so I can hide and pretend it’s (a) not happening and (b) I’m not an American. However, sometimes a lawsuit is the only way to get the dudes in charge to pay attention and change their ways.

On March 18th the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida in order to convince them that their graduation rates blow and improvements need to be made. Suing the school district is an interesting tactic. As I clearly stated above, I’m not a big fan of lawsuits. But I actually kind of like this one. Maybe school districts will be able to beg the politicians for more funding if there’s suddenly an outbreak of lawsuits.

From the CS Monitor article:

In a class-action lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union is demanding that the district boost its graduation rates and reduce the gaps in those rates between racial and socioeconomic groups. The lawsuit is the first in the United States to make such demands of a school district, the ACLU and other sources say.

Lawyers from the national ACLU and its Florida chapter filed the suit in state court on March 18. Specifically, the ACLU is asking the court to require the district to improve its graduation rates by a certain percentage each year – overall and for subgroups. It also wants the court to determine a more accurate way of calculating graduation rates – a complex issue nationwide.

For educators and education experts, the case raises some controversial questions: What is an acceptable rate of graduation? And who should be held responsible when schools miss the mark – schools, students, society?

“If the ACLU is successful, this is going to shake everything up, because it will be a whole different set of expectations about who is supposed to solve the problems,” says Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va.

Under the state-required reporting system, the graduation rate in the Palm Beach County District last year was 71.4 percent. The suit claims that other methods of calculation would yield an even lower rate. But either way, it argues, the success level is inadequate. It also notes that in Palm Beach County, the state-reported rate for whites was 29 percentage points higher than that of African-Americans and 20 points higher than that of Hispanics.

Some observers say they’d be surprised to see the case go far unless the state is also brought in as a defendant, because the state determines so much education policy and funding. To others, the suit skirts over the role of individuals, families, and society in ensuring that students qualify for a diploma.

The plaintiffs argue there’s more the district can be doing. “The graduation rates in Palm Beach County are shamefully low,” says Vanita Gupta, an ACLU staff attorney in New York. The district needs to “live up to its constitutional obligations [in Florida] to provide a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality education.”

Further Reading About the Educational Stuff:

Dismal High School Graduation Rates Violate Florida Constitution, Says ACLU Lawsuit
American Civil Liberties Union Sues Over “Shamefully” Low Graduation Rates
A Lawsuit Over Florida’s Low High School Graduation Rates
ACLU Sues Palm Beach County School District Over Poor Graduation Rates

Further Reading About Frivolous Lawsuits:

Re-printed Wall Street Journal Article
The Stella Awards

Posted by Alexa Harrington

ScienceDaily has an article up about a new Northwestern University study researching the effects of class size on academic achievement in elementary school students. Decreasing class size is beneficial overall, but a new study found that not only does the achievement gap between the higher academic achievers and the lower academic achievers still exists, but it’s more pronounced when class size is decreased.

While decreasing class size may increase achievement on average for all types of students, it does not appear to reduce the achievement gap within a class,” said Spyros Konstantopoulos, assistant professor at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy.

Konstantopoulos’ study, which appears in the March issue of Elementary School Journal, questions commonly held assumptions about class size and the academic achievement gap — one of the most debated and perplexing issues in education today.

The Northwestern professor worked with data from Project STAR, a landmark longitudinal study launched in 1985 by the State of Tennessee to determine whether small classes positively impacted the academic achievement of students.

Considered one of the most important investigations in education, STAR made it abundantly clear that on average small classes had a positive impact on the academic performance of all students.

“Given that class size reduction is an intervention that benefits all students, it’s tempting to expect that it also will reduce the achievement gap,” he added. Previous research, however, has provided weak or no evidence that class reduction benefited lower-achieving students more than others. The Northwestern study underscores that research.

Smaller class size should always be a priority, that much is obvious. It’s better for all parties involved—the minds and the psyches of the students, the sanity of the teachers, and it certainly helps to tone down the spazziness of hyper parents. As Konstantopoulos suggests, the next step is to research how to improve academic achievement for lower-achieving students.

“It is unfortunate that data about classroom practices that could be useful in identifying ways of improving academic success for lower achieving students were not available in Project STAR,” Konstantopoulos said. “A new randomized experiment with the objective of collecting high-quality observational data in the classrooms would provide invaluable information about the effects of small classes.”

Posted by Alexa Harrington

The American Diploma Project people have surveyed and polled all pertinent groups (high school students, educators and administrators, high school dropouts, new college students, college professors, parents, the general public, recent graduates in the workforce, employers, and some other people, too) regarding how adequately public high schools in America prepare graduates for college. All questioned parties agree that unless high school grads have taken AP classes, honors courses, etc., they will not be prepared for college-level coursework.

Thus far, I concur. The average public high school in America does not require of its students what the average American college or university will when those students graduate and begin their matriculation. Huge news this is not.

The newsy part is that the American Diploma Project and some politician-types have decided that the way to fix the problem is to create a whole new side project whereby high school students can be extra challenged and receive a College and Career Ready Diploma, also known as a “super diploma”.

Obviously, a super diploma is way cooler than a standard-issue diploma. There are some additional credits involved as well as more math, science and language requirements, etc. Theoretically, the graduates with the super diploma will be super-ready to kick ass in college or in the workforce.

That is a lovely plan. Really. The American Diploma Project folks put a huge amount of research into this. And where’s the bad in trying to increase high school grad preparedness for college? I agree (mostly) with what they’ve found lacking in the current system, and with the the list of coursework and skills graduates will need before entering college or the workforce.

But I’m not on board with the idea of it being an extra component of the current system. Why can’t the entire system just be made stronger and better and more ass-kicking? The public education system in America is like a road with some distressingly large, car-sized potholes. It could use a little work before someone gets hurt. So the Diploma guys and the politicians gathered around some of the more sizeable potholes and had a meeting, did some surveys, took some polls. Then they talked a lot and there were more meetings, plans were made, pages were written, money was invested.

And they decided to build a Special Shiny Golden Bridge of Wonderfulness over the Potholey Road of Public Education. Of course! Build a bridge over the problem! (Then we don’t have to deal with it). There are “opt-in” and “opt-out” loopholes built-in, so any student who doesn’t feel like being Super in this lifetime can avoid the bridge and stick with the potholes. Whew! Problem solved. Our work here is done.

I’m neither an educator nor a politician, but here’s my subtle suggestion: spend the time, energy, money and politician-backing on fixing the public education system. Improve the whole system so all graduates are prepared for college or career. Don’t make a special side project that increases the red tape and the confusion. I’ll be optimistic (and a little less sarcastic) and hope that their ultimate goal is that the Special Shiny Golden Bridge of Wonderfulness will eventually replace the Potholey Road. Maybe they’re just trying to move in slowly so the kinks can be worked out.

Further Reading:

Diploma Project Raises Bar for State
American Diploma Project Aims to ‘Guarantee’ College/Career
Ready or Not: Mathematics Benchmarks from the American Diploma Project
Study Says U.S. Should Set High-School Standards
Maryland Schools Will Participate in American Diploma Project
Virginia Secretary of Education: American Diploma Project Network
Oregon Dept. of Education: High School as a Key Transition
High School Diploma is No Longer Key to Success
Back to the Future in Mathematics Education

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Wendy Boswell at Lifehacker posted this amazing article on the great dot-edu sites out there and what bastions of mind-blowing information they are. She does point out, however (and I agree) that the time-suckage factor is astronomical: you can fritter away hours perusing university art gallery sites. It’s just so easy to justify educational time-wasting…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Current and future college-bound high school students are stoked. The Washington Post reports that there will be an overall decrease in the number of high school students applying for college, and that there will be an overall increase of minority applicants. Which means it will be easier to get into college than it has been, and (hopefully) the minorities will no longer be referred to as such since they’ll be the populations with the highest numbers on the average college campus.

Obviously this happy day/apocalypse is freaking out admission and recruitment offices. Whatever. As long as the decrease in students isn’t drastic enough to result in the closure of any schools, the change seems like a positive one that will benefit the students. How can less-severe competition for admission and an increase in diversity be detrimental?

Population Shift Sends Universities Scrambling: Applicant Pool Forecast To Shrink and Diversify

Colleges and universities are anxiously taking steps to address a projected drop in the number of high school graduates in much of the nation starting next year and a dramatic change in the racial and ethnic makeup of the student population, a phenomenon expected to transform the country’s higher education landscape, educators and analysts said.

After years of being overwhelmed with applicants, higher education institutions will over the next decade recruit from a pool of public high school graduates that will experience:

- A projected national decline of roughly 10 percent or more in non-Hispanic white students, the population that traditionally is most likely to attend four-year colleges.

- A double-digit rise in the proportion of minority students — especially Hispanics — who traditionally are less likely to attend college and to obtain loans to fund education.

The demographic changes will be profound for individual students: Some will probably see their chances of getting into selective schools improve, and others will see opportunities to enroll at the most selective schools decline. And for colleges, the demographic changes will mean new ways of recruiting and educating students.

“One challenge will be looking at the interface between high schools and college and the issue of college readiness, and the other will be the whole issue of the cost of college,” said David Ward, president of the nonprofit American Council on Education.

The efforts come as the nonprofit Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education plans to release a report this month that will show a decline in high school graduation next year in most areas of the country, except the West, senior research analyst Brian Prescott said. That is at least a year earlier than in some past projections.

Many schools, accustomed to annual increases in the number of high school graduates, are retooling recruitment efforts to focus on states where that population will keep rising.

Although the outlook varies from state to state, the West is projected to have the highest percentage growth, with the Midwest and Northeast experiencing declines. The South is looking at mixed results, according to projections.

Further Reading:

Minority Student Acceptances Increase Dramatically for Class of 2011

Projections of High School Graduates by State, Income and Race/Ethnicity

Minority Data and Strategies at Ithaca College

Students of Color Make Dramatic Gains in College Enrollment…

University Preparing to Deal With Minority Influx

The Changing Face of American Colleges

Minority College Enrollment Surges Over the Past Two Decades…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Week 161 of The Carnival of Education is up today over yonder at The Education Wonks–many amazing writings on and about education from the EduSphere. Sam Jackson hosted #160 last week. That boy is off at Yale—how does he have time to host a blog carnival? He probably needs a nap.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

A college degree is one of the better bullet points to have on your résumé. And going to college is the best way to obtain said degree. Not everyone heads straight from high school to a four-year college or university—about half of the undergraduates in the U.S. are currently matriculating through community colleges. Financial, academic, or resident status red tape being the main reasons to attend a two-year vs. a four-year institution. But less than half of them actually accomplish their higher educational goals. Um, why? The theory is that while the community colleges are very accessible to a larger percentage of the population than are four-year institutions, the community colleges don’t do much in the way of support once the students are in and trying to do the actual learning and achieving of goals.

The state funding the community colleges receive is frequently based on enrollment, not on student success. There’s now a new plan afoot to base state funding on several measurable achieved goals.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students. Achieving the Dream works on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. It emphasizes the use of data to drive change.

Fifteen states have colleges participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative. Inside Higher Ed’s recent article explained in detail how the schools in Washington State could benefit from the program.

Washington State’s Student Achievement Initiative rewards its colleges for helping students continue moving forward regardless of where they start or how far they may be from attaining their educational goals.

Washington’s community and technical colleges will receive extra money for students who earn their first 15 and first 30 college credits, earn their first 5 credits of college-level math, pass a pre-college writing or math course, make significant gains in certain basic skills tests, earn a degree or complete a certificate. Colleges also will be rewarded for students who earn a GED through their programs. All of these benchmarks are important accomplishments that help propel students forward on the road of higher education.

To base funding solely on enrollment numbers is lame and doesn’t help students once they’re attending the school. Which means I support the basic idea of student success-based funding. Teach your students well, have excellent advisors and tutoring centers and there will be more money for you. However, there is a slight disconnect for me regarding how this program will affect not only the traditional students this new program is geared for, but all the non-traditional community college students as well.

Community colleges have several student categories: transfer, transitional, high school concurrent, adult, international, professional/technical, and personal interest. How do they fit into the assessment program? Do they affect funding positively or negatively? Will they end up skewing the funding numbers? Or will they end up with little or no support because they don’t fit the traditional student criteria?

Obviously a student trying to earn their GED needs more support than the retirees taking Tai Chi. It’s not that I feel it’s supremely important that the underwater basket-weaving students receive as much guidance, advising and tutoring as the international transfer students, it’s that I don’t want this incentive program to cause the dissolution of all non-traditional courses at community colleges. I’ll be optimistic and hope the initiative positively affects the traditional students who need additional support and has no adverse effects on the non-traditional community college student population.

Further Reading:

Excellent explanation of how the Lumina Foundation selected colleges for the Achieving the Dream initiative.

American Association of Community Colleges Student Enrollment and Characteristics.

Profiles of colleges taking part in the Achieving the Dream initiative and their individual goals.

Press release regarding Texas schools.

Press release regarding Michigan schools.

Posted by Alexa Harrington