Journalists are about to start hearing a lot more of the phrase “The Race to the Top.” It’s important to start examining what this phrase means, because it could start taking on a life of its own the way “No Child Left Behind,’‘ did and creep into the lexicon of education reporting without explanation.
The term has been used by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to describe $5 billion in the stimulus bill aimed at backing new approaches to improve schools and push states to raise their standards and reward top teachers. According to the Democrats for Education Reform, it represents “a historic opportunity to establish clear reform priorities and to back them up with significant resources to bring change to America’s schools.”
So what would it mean for pre-k programs? DFER posted an issue brief this week that is a helpful guide for journalists trying to understand the new federal investment in early childhood education (which is also the subject of a webinar the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media will hold on June 24; sign-up here.)
The brief, written by Sara Mead, who writes the excellent Early Ed Watch blog, calls for states “to enact policities to encourage the creation of pre-k charter schools to deliver high-quality early education to 3-and 4-year-olds,” and gives several good examples of how such programs would work and what states can do.
This is a relatively new idea and one worth watching and asking about. The brief provides examples of existing programs that get little coverage, including The Accelerated School in Los Angeles, KIPP McDonough 15 in New Orleans, and dozens of charter schools in Washington, D.C. that she believes provide high-quality learning and help improve outcomes for disadvantaged children later on.
Mead also notes an important trend that many journalists who are covering pre-k battles in their states are familiar with. Even though states have more than doubled spending on pre-k since 2002, “the current economic downturn and state budget shortfalls threaten this progress; nine states have already announced cuts to their state pre-k programs and more are likely to do so in the coming weeks,” the brief notes.
Hechinger blogs
How will NYC students fare on the new exams?
It’s the learning, stupidLast month, the state of New York administered English Language Arts and mathematics assessments to students in grades 3-8. For the first time, the assessments were aligned with the Common Core State Standards, a set of standards for what students should know at each grade level in these subjects that 45 states across the country [...]
Completion strategies may be too costlyThe community college Completion Agenda aims to double the number of students who complete a one-year certificate or an associate degree or who transfer to complete a credential, writes Terry O’Banion in Community College Times. College leaders have focused on orientation, advising, placement, financial aid — everything but teaching and learning. Key leaders involved in the Completion [...]
New test assesses non-academic readinessCommunity colleges and other broad-access institutions are under pressure to graduate more students while cutting costs, write Community College Research Center researchers Davis Jenkins and Olga Rodríguez in Access and Success with Less: Improving Productivity in Broad-Access Postsecondary Institutions. But completion-boosting strategies may not be cost effective and the most commonly used cost-cutting strategies, such as hiring adjuncts [...]
Community colleges see 3.6% enrollment dipStudent success depends on motivation as well as academic preparation. A new ETS test called SuccessNavigator claims to measure students’ readiness to show up for class, ask question and persevere, reports Inside Higher Ed. Steven Robbins, director of research innovation at ETS, said the test can be used in tandem with conventional placement exams to find students [...]
CCs try to double the number of grads by 2020College enrollments are continuing to fall by an average of 2.3 percent, except at four-year, private, nonprofit institutions, reports the National Student Clearinghouse. Community colleges lost 3.6 percent of students from spring 2012 to 2013. Full-time enrollment declined by 5.2 percent and part-time enrollment by 2.6 percent. The number of traditional-age students went down by only 1.7 [...]
Community college leaders are trying to double the number of graduates by 2020 to meet President Obama’s targets. It’s not easy, writes Stacy Collett in Community College Journal. For administrators at Harper College in Illinois, 10,604 is the magic number—it’s the college’s share of the 5 million additional community college graduates President Obama challenged the [...]
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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—On a recent afternoon at California State University, Northridge, Nancy Prosenjak was attempting to quiet the graduate students spread out across conference tables in the back of her classroom. She was still missing nearly a third of the class, but she was eager to debrief with her students about their first day of student [...]
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at 4:26 pm
Dear Richard and Liz,
I am a reporter/graduate of Columbia’s Journalism School, and I wanted to let you know that myself and two other reporters on our summer education reporting project will be covering the National Charter Schools Conference next week. We are reporting on charter schools this summer in New Orleans, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Newark, and rural and urban Michigan. Next week, we’ll be covering the policy issues that are at stake for the future of the charter movement when we go to D.C. Please feel free to reference our coverage or check it out here: http://news21.jrn.columbia.edu/
Thanks,
Elaine
at 4:27 pm
Dear Richard and Liz,
I am a reporter/graduate of Columbia’s Journalism School, and I wanted to let you know that myself and two other reporters on our summer education reporting project will be covering the National Charter Schools Conference next week. We are reporting on charter schools this summer in New Orleans, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Newark, and rural and urban Michigan. Next week, we’ll be covering the policy issues that are at stake for the future of the charter movement when we go to D.C. Please feel free to reference our coverage or check it out here: http://news21.jrn.columbia.edu/
Thanks,
Elaine