It’s Friday! Here’s your News Roundup:
Keeping an Eye on Statewide School Ratings (The Texas Tribune)
The Texas Tribune is reporting that at least 14 Texas districts have a campus with a fourth consecutive failing grade, putting those districts at risk of triggering state intervention during the 2027-28 school year. Most of those schools are in the Austin, Houston and San Antonio areas and serve higher shares of low-income, Black and Hispanic students than state averages.
Two thoughts.
First, the State of Texas must wonder if they are prepared to support this much campus and district intervention. It probably sounded like a good plan to the Texas legislators who voted for state intervention whenever school districts showed their inability to take care of children in all of their schools. But now, the Texas Legislature and state education leaders must think about their capacity to fix all these schools.
Second, based on the number of schools receiving “F” grades throughout Texas, and the recent news out of Houston that their district has basically cheated in order to insure none of their schools were failing, one has to ask the question: Is it time for us to change the learning model for those kids and their families trapped inside these sucky schools?
When Should Students Take Algebra? New Research Offers Clues (EducationWeek)
New research from the testing company NWEA tells us something we already knew about Algebra preparation:
“For students who aren’t prepared to take Algebra 1 in 8th grade, merely delaying the class for a year may not be enough to ensure they are prepared.”
“But students who are prepared to take the class in 8th grade perform better academically if they complete the class that year, rather than waiting until 9th grade, according to the research, which looked at results from more than 50,000 children.”
“’For the higher achievers, the answer is getting that access (to Algebra 1 in 8th grade) and trying to build state policies around that,’ said Megan Kuhfeld, director of growth modeling and data analytics at NWEA.”
“For students at the other end of the readiness spectrum, educators and policymakers need to build math supports earlier in the academic pipeline to ‘get students ready for algebra in elementary and middle school,’ she said.”
Back in 1994, our middle school started a program whereby we worked with our feeder elementary schools to build a math program designed to enroll as many students as possible in Algebra by the 8th grade.
When I left that middle school, we had about 50 percent of our 8th graders, or 10 sections of 30 students each, taking Algebra. If I had stayed, that number would have increased to 70 to 75 percent of the 8th grade class.
High expectations, coupled with adequate support, is the key to exemplary student performance when it comes to reading, writing, and problem solving.
Mike Morath Wanted Texas to Reach No. 1 in Education. Test Scores Show There’s More Work To Do (The Texas Tribune)
Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has been leading public education in the Lone Star State for 10 years. He said then that he wanted Texas to be No. 1 in public education. Ten years later, Morath holds a mixed bag of achievement and challenge.
“…[N]ational test scores indicate he still has a steep road to travel before the pizza party. While Texas’ fourth grade math students jumped from 18th to 8th over his tenure, the state otherwise lingers in the bottom third of the country.”
Texas, along with most other states, is especially challenged with black, brown, and poor learners, teaching them reading, writing, and problem solving skills. And for years, the population most states struggle with in terms of high performance is exactly the population that is increasingly present inside their public schools.
Banning AI Alone Won’t Snuff Out the ‘TechLash,’ Parent Advocates Say (EducationWeek)
“Florida is taking a big step to put parent choice at the center of its efforts to restrict the use of artificial intelligence in schools under new rules approved by the state board of education September 16.”
“The new rules are part of a growing movement across the country to dial back the use of technology – and not just AI – in schools. Many parents across the country also want to see restrictions on screen time in school and use of platforms like YouTube.”
“’Banning AI does not get school districts out of having to deal with the overuse of ed tech generally in their schools,’ said Meg Leta Jones, a professor at Georgetown University who studies the impact of technology on families. ‘It’s not going to get them out of that conversation, though AI is going to be an inevitable part’ of those discussions.’”
Parent dissatisfaction with educational technology is due to the fact that public education never figured out how to use it effectively when it came to student learning.
Now, we are starting to convince ourselves that ed tech is suspicious if not useless, while our traditional K-12 system continues to struggle.
Skimping on Recess Won’t Fix Test Scores, Experts Say (EducationWeek)
Researchers continue to tell us that increasing instructional time does not necessarily insure better standardized test scores.
“’We keep increasing instructional time. You would think we would learn that all the things we put into place that target so forcefully the reading and math, when we’re getting no return on investment from our targeting, isn’t working,’ said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University. ‘How many kids have to fail on tests for people to recognize that maybe we’re not doing something right?’”
“…Recess tends to be especially short in low-income districts that face greater academic pressures to improve standardized test scores – despite strong evidence showing that playing at recess can improve concentration, classroom behavior, and ultimately academic performance.”
Why don’t we do what we know?
ABPTL will be away until September 29th. Til then. SVB
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