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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch February 23, 2016

3 Technologies Bolstering STEM Learning

According to the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) Coalition, there are 26 million STEM jobs in the U.S., comprising 20 percent of all jobs. By 2020, there will be 9.2 million STEM jobs in the U.S. Despite the need for these workers, only 45 percent and 30 percent of high school seniors are prepared for college-level math and science courses, respectively.

As the American K-12 system continues to look for ways to increase student interest and aptitude in STEM learning, technology is playing an increasingly pivotal role. Children who come to classrooms today have an inherent aptitude for technology and educators should encourage that skill set with resources that integrate STEM learning. Just a few of the ways to do that include making use of:

Virtual laboratories

Scientific experiments are no longer just reserved for physical labs. Through interactive technology, students can now do experiments remotely through use of virtual laboratories. The virtual labs at New Mexico State University, for example, give high school and college students access to food-based experiments. Students can test for corn mold, milk bacterial contamination and prevent C. Bot growth in salsa from a remote website. There is certainly something to be said of in-person experimentation, but student access is usually limited based on actual class times and resources. A virtual lab means that a student can do an experiment multiple times, and learn from mistakes in real-time and make adjustments. It also means that experiments are not limited to a determined class time and can be done on a student’s schedule. So students with an appetite for experimentation have greater access to it, and the others are not easily discouraged by “one shot” experiments.

In-class mobile devices

A student with a tablet or smartphone in hand has a portal to hundreds of apps that support STEM learning. There are a lot of things that students can do on basic tablets and phones, but there are also products like the einstein Tablet+ from Fourier Education that have a specific focus on STEM initiatives. Instead of going out and searching for STEM-centric lessons, the einstein Tablet+ comes preloaded with experiments and modules that cover physics, biology, human physiology, chemistry, and environmental science. This STEM-specific tablet can be connected to classroom projectors and monitors so that all the students can participate at once, or can be used as an individual tablet for customized learning in grades K-12. Teachers can search mobile apps for highly-reviewed ones, some of which are completely free, to use on the screens in their classrooms.

Television programming

While statistics show that too much television watching among children leads to higher obesity rates, behavior problems and less interest in things like reading, kids ages 8 to 18 are still watching television programs on various screens for 4.5 hours every day. It isn’t all bad news though. The value of children’s programming is increasing though. Programming is no longer created for the purpose of entertainment alone. On PBS alone, STEM-learning programs like Sid the Science Kid, Curious George, Cyberchase, Nature and Nova run the gamut of childhood ages and interests. In some cases, teachers are even able to incorporate some of these learning programs in classrooms and build entire lesson plans around the content.
Math, science and engineering are all intrinsically linked with technology. This gives educators an advantage with the current generation of K-12 students who arrive in Kindergarten classrooms with a technological edge. As learning technology improves, STEM education will continue to be the beneficiary if educators use it resourcefully.

What do you think can be done to improve student interest in STEM pursuits?

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform February 23, 2016

Top 3 Ways to Improve Learning in Schools…Using School Lunches

As we all know, nutrition and educational performance are related. And with one third of the U.S.’s 300 million residents obese, it is more important now than it has ever been to focus on how healthy the available meal options are for students. While it may seem far-fetched that food may have such a dramatic impact on our students, the truth is that a well-nourished student is able to think more clearly and focus better.

Here are three ways to improve learning in schools with a simple tool: school meals and other food-based initiatives.

1. Free and reduced school lunch programs. Free school breakfast and lunch programs are often credited with higher levels of student achievement in the schools where they exist. Non-profit children’s hunger programs intended to feed at-risk students on the weekends are sprouting up all across the country. There is a connection between what a child eats and how that child performs academically.

2. Healthier school lunches. It is well known that First Lady Michelle Obama is passionate about school lunch nutrition standards. In fact, she says that she is willing to “fight to the bitter end” to ensure that the school lunch nutrition standards she helped draft stay in place — despite a Republican-drafted bill that would allow some school exemption. The First Lady lobbied for higher nutrition standards that went into effect in 2012 that called for more vegetables, fruits and whole grains in school meals, along with less fat, sugar and sodium. Over 90 percent of public schools in the U.S. have subscribed to the standards since their enactment.

The First Lady’s standards have received some pushback from the industry-backed School Nutrition Association, which says that fewer lunches are being sold because children do not want to buy the healthier lunches. Furthermore, a House of Representatives bill authored by Alabama Republican Robert Aderholt would give school districts the opportunity to skip the nutrition requirements for one year. According to Aderholt, the change came on too quickly and that schools need time to adjust.

Unhappy teens have also protested against these standards, going onto Twitter to complain. Photos of unappetizing school fare in cafeteria Styrofoam trays have flooded Twitter since the hashtag was born as many teens are declaring that they would rather go hungry (or that they have gone hungry) than eat the “healthy” lunch options offered at their schools.

Despite the growing pains many schools are going through with the new nutritional standards, this is still an important initiative for students and their well-being.

3. Holistic food movements. This is perhaps the most interesting method of getting students what they need in terms of nutrition. An understanding of food and its role in lifelong physical and psychological health is also important because it addresses more than the immediate. Quality of life and longevity are impacted by food lifestyle and healthy eating habits that are formed early in life. In a culture where children grow up with a skewed concept of where food originates, some schools are now stepping in to provide guidance with student-led gardening programs.

The School Garden Project of Lane County, Oregon, for example, boasts 30 gardens at K-12 schools in five districts. Over 800 students are taught to “create, sustain and use onsite gardens” every year.” By simply showing the basics of food growing, students have an informed approach to eating without an official lesson in “healthy eating.” For many K-12 students, working in a school garden is the first time they are making a real-life connection between the items they see in the grocery store and their original location.

The Center for Nutrition in Schools at UC Davis found that garden-based learning does more than just improve nutrition knowledge. Students who participate in garden programs on school grounds have higher overall academic achievement and experience elevated self-esteem and social skills.

It’s clear that food makes a difference in the quality of education, sometimes even in the most unexpected ways. I hope that food-based initiatives are given some attention as we look for improvements we can make to our K-12 education system.

Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity, Matthew Lynch, OpEducation February 23, 2016

Trayvon Martin and the Burden of Young Black Males

Initially, I was hesitant about writing an opinion piece on the killing of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent public outcry because a multitude of gifted writers had already tackled the story from seemingly every angle. However, after reading Charles M. Blow’s, “The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin,” I was inspired by the last line of his piece, which states, “And that is the burden of black boys, and this case can either ease or exacerbate it.” As always, the New York Times columnist delivered his commentary in a poignant and articulate manner. This motivated me to write my own critique of the situation, and hopefully, someone will benefit from my thoughts and observations.

In case you haven’t heard the story, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American male was gunned down on February 26, 2012 by George Zimmerman, an overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer. His killing outraged people from all around the world, especially once the circumstances surrounding his death were released. More specifically, statements made by Trayvon’s girlfriend, who was on the phone with him during the incident, and reports from eye witnesses who heard Trayvon cry out for help seconds before the shots were fired. This certainly refutes Zimmerman’s claim that he acted in self defense.

What makes this case so appalling is that Zimmerman has yet to be charged with the crime, because investigators purportedly cannot find evidence to dispute his claim of self defense. However, ask yourself this; what if all other things remained constant and Trayvon grabbed Zimmerman’s gun and shot him in self-defense? Police would have taken Trayvon into custody and at the pre-trial hearing he would have been remanded without bail. Seemingly, the Florida law would not apply to young black males “standing their ground.”

Point blank, Trayvon Martin was racially profiled and subsequently killed with an Arizona brand ice tea and a bag of skittles in his possession. That was his crime, craving snacks while watching the NBA all-star game with his father and subsequently walking to the store for an Arizona brand ice tea and a bag of skittles. It seems that “walking while black” is a class B felony in the state of Florida.

Hopefully, this case will entreat the state of Florida to repeal its “Stand Your Ground” law, which stipulates that a citizen who feels as though they are in clear and present danger can claim self defense even if they chose not to flee from their assailant. Since the passage of the law, self defense claims pertaining to homicides have almost tripled, and many of the people killed were unarmed.

Zimmerman’s claim is not viable, because under the law, the instigator of the confrontation cannot claim self defense. The body of evidence that is presently available clearly shows that Zimmerman instigated the altercation and carried out his crime with impunity. He is apparently nowhere to be found, and disconnected his phones before going into hiding. He should know that because of his crime, he will always be in jail, just minus the bars.

Trayvon’s senseless killing illustrates “the burden of young black males.” The burden that I speak of is the burden of knowing that once you reach puberty and start exhibiting adult features, you will be labeled as a threat. The burden of knowing that “I am Trayvon Martin” and that his fate, could be your own.

How do I tell my 12-year-old nephews that once the cute and childish features make way for more mature ones, for many people, they will instantly graduate to “suspect zero” status? How do I tell them that some people will attempt to minimize their success and magnify their failures, simply because of the color of their skin? How do I tell them that minor infractions will be treated as B felonies? To be young and black in America is tantamount to being perpetually on probation.

Talk to young black males all over America and ask them if they have ever experienced discrimination and an overwhelming majority of them will tell you vivid stories of police harassment, profiling and blatant racism. We all remember the point when we received our “education.” When we first realized that for some people, nothing we could do would ever be enough. When we learned that the measure of a man in America is not the content of his character, but the color of their skin. When we realized that we had to adhere to a different set of rules and, instead of complaining, we took note of this inequality and worked diligently to combat it.

No matter how hard you try, unless you have been in our shoes, you cannot fully understand the damage that these experiences can have on a person’s psyche. However, we have a choice; we can wallow in self pity or we can resist the stereotypes that are thrust upon us and become the men that our creator wants us to be. Our young black boys need our help; they are under attack from all sides, even from within their own race. They cannot weather the storm on their own.

We have to demand justice and put America on notice. It needs to stop racially profiling young black males, and imprisoning and executing them inequitably. How long will we allow the genocide to continue? A black male in America is indeed an endangered species, especially in the country’s urban cities, where the unemployment rate is well above the national average and going to prison is “business as usual.”

Going forward, let’s write a new chapter; not only for ourselves, but also for our children and grandchildren. Our forefathers did not die so that our young males can be gunned down in the street for no other reason than being black. This has happened before and unfortunately will happen again. However, when it does, we will exhibit the same outrage and resolve that we’re exhibiting in response to the killing of Trayvon. In the words of the great Eldridge Cleaver, “You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.” Which will you be?

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation February 23, 2016

10 ways to use Skype in the classroom

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Bevin Reinen

Skype is an instructional tool that provides boundlessopportunities for authentic teaching and learning. It allows us to explore beyond the four walls of our classrooms. As elementary teachers, we sometimes battle to hold our students’ short attention spans. Integrating Skype lessons brings the curriculum to life in ways never before possible. You know that special moment when you announce a class activity, and it’s greeted with claps, screams, and cheers? That’s Skype. It brings pure joy, wonder, and intrigue to your students.

Here’s a list of ten ways to utilize it in the elementary setting, followed by some logistical tips for success.

1) Take a Virtual Field Trip: Is there some place you’d like your class to visit, but can’t swing the funds or it’s just not geographically possible? Find a guide to ‘take’ you there by visiting a historical landmark, museum, zoo, etc.

2) Invite an Author: Set up a Skype session with an author you’ve been studying to discuss a book. Or, set one up with any author so that your students can learn about the steps of the writing process. No, real authors do NOT write one and done! Here’s an awesome list of Authors Who Skype With Classes and Book Clubs for Free.

3) Share a Project: Have your students been working on some kind of a special project? Give them the chance to show/share it with a distant class. This provides motivation and will help them develop confidence in the value of their work.

4) Put on a Performance: Is there a poem, song, skit, or reader’s theater script your students need to present? Give them the opportunity to perform to a unique audience via Skype!

5) Interview an Expert: Invite an expert to speak with your class on a current topic of study. Conduct a Q and A session. This is definitely a step up from the basic Google search!

6) Cultural Exchange: Learn about various cultures by connecting with a class from abroad. Check out the site ePals, which allows educators interested in Skyping or using other web-based tools to connect globally.

7) Meet Pen Pals: To encourage meaningful writing opportunities, write back and forth with pen pals throughout the year. Set up a culminating Skype chat so that students can finally meet their pen pals ‘face to face’.

8) Mystery Skype: If you register for Skype in the Classroom (instead of regular Skype), you can play Mystery Skype. Mystery Skype is an educational game that allows two classes to guess each other’s locations via questioning.

9) Including Students with Medical Issues: If a student has to miss school for an extended amount of time, Skype is the perfect way for the class to connect with their classmate. While not all class activities are workable on Skype, including the student in some key lessons will help prevent him/her from falling behind.

10) Share Travel Experiences: If you have a special trip to attend during the school year, have your substitute connect with you on Skype to touch base, allow you to do a mini-lesson, or show/share about your location.

Tips:

1) Install Skype on your computer.

2) You’ll need a webcam, speakers, and microphone also.

3) Be sure you and your person both add each other as Skype contacts.

4) Run a test call to ensure everything is working properly.

5) Outline a plan and discuss logistics with your Skype contact.

6) Walk through expectations/procedures with your students beforehand.

*Remember, time is of the essence when working with little ones. Make sure all kinks are worked out prior to the chat to maximize engagement.

Here are a few photos of my class chatting with our pen pals/digital learning buddies from a nearby school. To launch our science unit on animals, we had each student bring in a stuffed animal and fact to show/share. Afterwards, I assigned her class to research and observe penguins on Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Live Web Cams, while she assigned my class to do the same for giraffes using Houston Zoo’s Live Web Cams. This generated excitement and motivated students for the next fact/opinion pen pal writing to come!

This post originally appeared on teachtrainlove.com and has been republished with permission.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here.

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Bevin is Nationally Board Certified as an Early Childhood Generalist. She considers herself a teacher by day, writer by night. Some of her work has appeared in national publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul; Married Life, Hallmark’s Thank You, Mom book, and Boys’ Quest magazine for kids.

Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform February 23, 2016

2 Reasons the Concept of “Justice for All” Does Not Apply to American Schools

In the US, the concepts of equality and justice are intertwined. The idea of “justice for all” has existed since America’s early days.

But the truth is that the application of this idea has been far from perfect to this very day. Let’s take a quick look at our historical lapses in carrying out the idea and how those affect us today.

De jure and de facto segregation. De jure segregation, or legalized segregation of Black and White people, was present in almost every aspect of life in the South during the Jim Crow era: from public transportation to cemeteries, from prisons to health care, from residences to libraries. Under segregation, Black and White people were to be separated, purportedly to minimize violence. De jure segregation, or “Jim Crow,” lasted from the 1880s to 1964. Jim Crow laws were efficient in perpetuating the idea of “White superiority” and “Black inferiority.”

De facto segregation is the direct manifestation of de jure segregation, because the U.S. government could mandate that laws that segregated the races were unconstitutional, but it couldn’t change the hearts and minds of its people. If people didn’t want to be in the presence of another ethnicity or race, they could certainly make this a reality. So, de jure segregation was implemented by law; de facto segregation, by common understanding and personal choice. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many White citizens simply moved to the suburbs to avoid mixing with Black citizens. This “White flight” led to the creation of “chocolate cities” and “vanilla suburbs,” which are still prevalent today.

In relation to education, the legal segregation of the races in Southern schools was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In the United States today, however, Black and Hispanic students tend to be concentrated in schools where they make up almost the entire student body. Also, the percentage of Black students in majority White schools has decreased to a level lower than in any year since 1968.

De facto segregation is a huge problem in the United States as it allows bigotry and discrimination to occur more easily. What happens as a result? Many schools in mostly Black neighborhoods find themselves unequally funded and seriously neglected.

Persistent stratification. The disparities between rights of certain ethnic groups in American culture can easily be identified by the disparity in the number of individuals incarcerated in the nation’s prison systems. African American men are arrested and imprisoned at disproportionately higher rates. Reports indicate that even when similar crimes were committed by White and African American men, the penalty was more severe for the latter. As a result of this socioeconomic stratification, a privileged class exists, with some Americans receiving benefits unavailable to others. For example, data from the U.S. Department of Labor reported higher unemployment rates for African Americans and Hispanics across all major age and gender groups in 2009.

The number of children from ethnic minority groups living in poverty continues to increase as well. In 2006, approximately 13 million children were living in poverty. The number of Hispanic children living in poverty has increased by 23% since 2000, and the number of African American children living in poverty increased by 8.4%. A 2006 study showed that social status had a significant influence on mortality rates, as well as “chronic diseases and injuries with well-established risk factors such as alcohol use, tobacco smoking, obesity, elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose.”

We need to be aware of history so that we can understand certain attitudes and problems that exist today, and hopefully repair them as we continue to strive for the ideal of “justice for all.”

Now I want to hear from you: what are some factors that prevent us Americans from fulfilling this admirable ideal? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Matthew Lynch February 23, 2016

3 Ways to Become a Culturally Responsive Teacher

Given the wealth of diversity in our nation’s public schools, it is no wonder that culturally responsive pedagogy is becoming more of a presence. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students’ unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student’s cultural place in the world.

It’s great that instructional theory is advocating a shift toward a pedagogy that emphasizes a comfortable and academically enriching environment for students of all ethnicities, races, beliefs, and creeds. However, implementing this type of educational style in the classroom can be complicated if a few things are not first taken into consideration.

This article discusses some factors to consider as culturally responsive educators.

Teachers: knock down your own biases first.

For many teachers, who hail from a middle-class European-American background, a common side effect of being raised in that dominant Euro-American culture is the self-perception that “I’m an American; I don’t have a culture.”

This is actually untrue—European-American culture simply dominates social and behavioral norms and policies to such an extent that those who grow up immersed in it can be entirely unaware of the realities of other cultures.

Fortunately, initial cultural biases can be overcome via hard work and reflection. The necessary element for discarding pre-existing biases is a willingness to go through a process of rigorous self-appraisal in order to learn what needs to be changed to teach in a culturally responsive fashion. A good way to start this process is by writing down reflections about family history, upbringing, and interpersonal relationship styles and how one’s experience may differ from the experience of a person raised in a different culture.

Eventually the focus of this reflection must turn toward one’s ideas about and racism and bias. The culturally responsive educator should reflect on the fears, stereotypes, and biases that they have about individuals that are different from them. Once the educator can recognize that their own personal tastes are not objectively better than those favored by other cultures, they can begin to investigate and appreciate the traditions and values of those cultures.

Now take a deeper look into the cultures of your students.

It’s easy to be superficial and fall into the twin traps of over generalization and stereotyping when learning about the different cultures of your students. What is important to keep in mind is that each student’s culture is dynamic and individualized.

A person’s culture represents the sum of many spheres of influence, including context within history, gender, age, religion, family relationships, group memberships, cultural beliefs and practices, historical context, and level of education. To avoid stereotyping, the educator must view each student as possessing a personalized culture instead of as a member of a homogenous group. At first blush this may appear to be a daunting task, but in practice there are a variety of methods that can be employed to learn more about a student’s cultural heritage and identity.

For example, classroom assignments can provide a primary window into a student’s cultural beliefs. Writing assignments can play a significant role in gathering information about student thought patterns and tendencies. Interviews with family members, assignments asking students to write about learning experiences that occur outside of school, and assignments involving family stories and traditions all can play a significant role in unearthing information about a students’ cultural heritage. Students’ parents can often be solicited as sources of useful personal information and visiting the neighborhoods where diverse students live can help give educators an idea about the level of social support present and the types of challenges that the student might face outside of the classroom.

Consider how cultural differences might affect academic performance.

A person’s culture and upbringing has a profound effect on how they see the world and how they process information. This fact was discussed by Richard Nisbett in his work, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently. Nisbett worked with psychologists in Japan and China and determined that the holistic way of viewing the world typical of many students from those countries differed from that of their American counterparts, who tended to view the world in parts or distinct classes of objects that could each be defined by a set of rules.

This information is helpful when we consider how cultural background might influence approach to both learning and school performance.

There are a number of theories that seek to explain differences in school performance among different racial and ethnic groups. Three theories particularly stand out: the cultural deficit theory, the expectation theory, and the cultural difference theory.

The cultural deficit theory states that some students do poorly in school because the linguistic, social, and cultural nature of the home environment does not prepare them for the work they will be required to do in school. As an example, some students may not have as many books read to them as children in other homes. Not being able to read has a negative influence on their vocabulary development. Vocabulary development may also be stifled by the amount and nature of verbal interaction in the home. As a result, some children arrive at school lacking the level of vocabulary development expected. The cultural deficit theory proposes that deficiencies in the home environment result in shortcomings in skills, knowledge, and behaviors that contribute to poor school performance.

The expectation theory focuses on how teachers treat students. Teachers often expect less from students of certain racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. When teachers expect students to perform poorly, they approach teaching in ways that align with their low levels of expectations. In these instances, students tend to perform at the low levels expected of them by teachers.

Rosenthal and Jacobson tested this theory in their Pygmalion effect study. A group of teachers were told that their students were due for an intellectual growth spurt during the school year. Even though the students were average in terms of academic performance, the teachers interacted with them based on this expectation. All students in the experimental group improved both academically and socially by the end of the year. Based on the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy, students who experience high expectations seek to reach the level of expected behaviors. Correspondingly, students who experience low expectations act to meet the level of behavior expected of them.

The cultural difference theory is based on the idea that students who are raised in different cultural settings may approach education and learning in different ways. It is important for teachers to be aware of the differences between the school atmosphere and the home environment. People from different cultural traditions may have an approach to education that differs from the mainstream approach used in American schools. For instance, differences can be noted in the Polynesian concept of learning, whereby younger children are generally taught by older children rather than by adults. This is a very different approach to learning and one that may need to be considered in an American school that is attended by Polynesian students.

Teachers need to ensure that they incorporate methods of teaching in their classrooms that accommodate various beliefs and cultural notions students bring to school. This requires each teacher to develop an understanding of their student’s culture, but also to know who their students are as individuals. It is important for teachers to ensure that they treat all students the same and to have high expectations for each one, so that they may all strive to reach their full potential.

References

Culturally responsive teaching is a theory of instruction that was developed by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings and has been written about by many other scholars since then. To read more of her work on culturally responsive teaching and other topics, click here to visit her Amazon.com page.

Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education, list, Matthew Lynch February 23, 2016

3 Quick Facts about College Dropout Rates

There are a lot of metrics in place that gauge the effectiveness of P-12 schooling in the U.S. and shine a particularly bright light on public schools, particularly when they are failing students. Dropout rates are just one of the factors taken into account when these numbers are calculated and tend to weigh heavily on the schools and districts who have low percentages.

The same does not seem to be true once the high school years pass though. Compared to P-12 institutions, colleges and universities seemingly get a pass when it comes to dropout rates – perhaps because in the past, higher education was considered more of a privilege and less of a right. A college dropout was simply walking away from the assumed higher quality of life that came with the degree, but still had opportunity to excel without it.

That’s not the case anymore. As of 2013, 17.5 million students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities. More than ever, colleges and universities have a responsibility to not simply admit students, but ensure they are guided properly to graduation. In other words, institutions of higher education should not be able to just take their student’s money and say “good luck.” They should provide the tools necessary for students to successfully achieve a college education and anticipate the issues that could prevent that.

Authors Ben Miller and Phuong Ly discussed the issue of the U.S. colleges with the worst graduation rates in their book College Dropout Factories. Here is some information about those schools—it may shock you.

Some colleges have graduation rates as low as 8 percent. Washington Monthly that ranked the U.S. schools with the lowest six-year graduation rates among colleges and universities, including public ones like the University of the District of Columbia (8%), Haskell Indian Nations University (9%), Oglala Lakota College (11%), Texas Southern University (13%) and Chicago State University (13%).
Several of these schools have high percentages of underrepresented minorities attending. A quick scan of the University of the District Columbia’s official page shows graduation rate numbers through the end of the 2003 – 2004 school year (the past nine years, strangely, are nowhere to be found). The school boasts 51.2 percent underrepresented minorities in the study body, including 47 percent that are Black.

In the case of Chicago State University, the latest statistics show some improvement from the 2010 ones. The six-year graduation rate is up to 21 percent – but the transfer-out rate is nearly 30 percent. The school has 92 percent underrepresented minorities that attend – 86 percent who are black and 70 percent who are female.

But good are those numbers if these students are not actually benefitting from their time in college because they receive no degree?

P-12 schools rigorously track and hold themselves accountable for dropout rates. Colleges do not.

In all cases of college dropout factories, the P-12 institutions chalk up a victory on their end. They graduated the students and also saw them accepted into a college. What happens after that is between the students and their higher education choices.

This, to me, is a problem. The accountability for student success extends beyond the years that they are in P-12 classrooms. Graduation from high school, and acceptance into college, should never be the final goal of P-12 educators. That is not a victory. That is only halftime.

As far as the colleges and universities are concerned, higher accountability should be demanded from educators, students, parents and really any Americans that want the best economy and highest-educated population. Public institutions, in particular, should be subject to restructuring or take over if dropout rates are too high. The lack of delivery on the college degree dream at many of these schools is appalling, frankly, and has gone on long enough.

What do you think—should colleges be more accountable for the graduation rates of their students, especially given the necessity of a college education today?

Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform February 22, 2016

Is “School Choice” an Anti-Public School Sentiment?

There are a lot more options for receiving K-12 education today than when I was growing up. Long gone are the days when parents had to pick between the public school in their district or paying pricey private school tuition out of pocket. The rise of public charter and magnet schools, state-led voucher programs, online learning, and homeschooling options has meant that parents now have no reason to settle on the closest school or pay a premium to avoid it.

Do so many options undermine the purpose of public schools though? Should all of the energy that is going into building, naming and analyzing these other schools really be channeled into strengthening the basic schools that the government gave us?

In theory, I suppose there is an argument for refocus of educational pursuits where schools already exist, instead of creating new versions. But that theory hinges on the false assumption that given the chance, public schools would find the motivation, both within and outside school walls, to improve. Since the 1918 decree that all American children must attend at least elementary school, public schools have been considered a basic right. That widespread access certainly led to a better educated public but in the process the privilege of learning has been lost.

Despite spending more on public education than France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil AND the U.K. combined, the U.S. lags behind these nations in math and science. Only 25 percent of high school graduates have the literacy skills they need to get a job. What’s more, every 26 seconds a U.S. student drops out of high school. In the democratization of education process, indifference to learning has risen and the standards at public schools have dropped.

Enter school choice – a movement that strives to improve education at ALL schools through the old-fashioned business concept of competition. Public charter and magnet schools are tuition free, just like public schools, but must make some promises in their contracts in order to stay open. If these schools of choice habitually do not reach their goals, they close. Can the same be said of public schools? The accountability level that these young additions to the public school arena bring ensures that students achieve more – and if they don’t, those schools do not stick around long.

School choice is not simply about non-traditional public schools though. The movement goes much deeper than that and empowers parents to take the reins of their children’s learning paths. Since 2007, the number of K-12 students enrolled in online public schools has risen an astonishing 450 percent. Home schooling is also on the rise as 1.77 million K-12 students are homeschooled – a number that has more than doubled since 1999. Parents are pushing back against simple acceptance of educational opportunities based on geography; they are still choosing traditional public and private schools but only after educating themselves.

At the end of January, National School Choice Week will take place. Last year, there were over 3,600 independently-held School Choice events across the country meant to celebrate choice in education. Parents, administrators, politicians, students and other community leaders are encouraged to hold rallies, open houses or other events to shine the spotlight on choice in K-12 education.

Traditional public schools are not excluded from the events and are an important part of the discussion. It is meant to be a time of K-12 enlightenment, when misconceptions about choice in education are resolved.

So can public schools thrive in a school choice environment? I think so, yes. Options like charter, magnet, private, online and homeschool curricula are not meant to undermine the nation’s public schools but to build them up through shared quality standards. There is room for all choices in K-12 schools and students benefit from the options.

What is your stance on school choice?

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch February 22, 2016

Influence of Transformational Leadership on Behavior and Performance

Transformational leadership is a widespread, influential style of leadership that creates a high level of effectiveness in most organizations. This success can credited to certain leader behaviors that influence logic and motivation in their followers. Transformational leaders tap into the values, beliefs, and ideals of followers toward a higher vision. This is the most crucial part of leadership in fostering effectiveness.

Their inspiration helps followers discover new means of problem-solving. Much research has been carried out on followers’ reactions toward transformational leadership. It is common to find such tenets as trust, personal confidence, job satisfaction, identification, a feeling of belonging, and fairness being emphasized as indicators of the success of a transformational leader.

Another approach to transformational leadership has been the examination of followers’ feelings about themselves, based on input to their assigned jobs or groups. It makes sense to gauge the success of leadership by its effects on the behavior of targeted followers. In the school setting, it is crucial that students, parents, staff, and other interested groups feel that their leadership values their input, and that they are responsible for the success of the school in their individual capacities.

Perhaps the most important mechanism for gauging the benefits of transformational leadership is a critical examination of individual performance, rather than finding out their feelings toward leadership. In contrast to other styles, the rationale for transformational leadership is results-based.

A transformational leader should be able to bring out these characteristics in their followers:

• Identity: followers should be able to complete whole tasks while still adding value to them.
• Variety: a transformational leader should evoke an array of results by encouraging the use of different skills by followers.
• Autonomy: the leader allows for personal growth and freedom at work.
• Feedback: the tools of analysis by which the leader assesses the performance of the entire establishment, and helps to decide what needs to be corrected.

In a school, it is important that all students and staff, being the direct followers of school leadership, acquire these characteristics from the transformational leader.Though these characteristics may involve the feelings of followers, their intended purpose is to bring about a higher level of cooperative performance. Using the above characteristics, researchers are able to analyze the influence of transformational leadership on performance and behavior. The integration of all these aspects brings out the total synergy created by transformational leadership and a motivated following.

Transformational leaders enable followers to see organizational goals as being similar to their own goals and interests. this introduces a higher level of responsibility in followers, resulting in better performance. The use of intellectual stimulation through new styles of problem solving and a higher tolerance for individual freedom instills autonomy and variety, which are often characteristics of good performance. Through inspirational motivation and charismatic influence, followers are more likely to feel that their roles in the organizational setting are significant.

In a school setting, commitment to the school motto by students and staff can have a direct influence to their overall performance, be it academically or in extra-curricular activities. For example, if a school’s motto states “excellence through discipline,” anyone who takes this line to heart would try to succeed while maintaining a disciplined order. The link between commitment to the motto and success is obvious.

At Excellence Elementary School in Smalltown, USA, the students and staff recite an affirmation every morning at breakfast. “I am Somebody. I am capable and lovable . . . I can do anything when I try,” they chant. This emphasis on individual accountability and performance has had a dramatic effect on the school, which had been struggling.

The affirmation served as a foundation stone for the changes the school was starting to implement under new leadership. Teachers based art, music, and writing assignments on the new affirmation. Suddenly, children and teachers alike felt responsible for their actions, and were assured of their important role in the school. This is transformational leadership at its best: the leader sets off a process that allows staff and students to take ownership of the school.

References

Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership that was developed by James Burns (1978), and has been written about by many other scholars since then. To read more of James Burns’ work on transformational leadership and other topics, click here to visit his Amazon.com page.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 22, 2016

What higher ed can learn from healthcare

A guest column by Edgar Wilson

Healthcare is undergoing reform in order to hold care providers more accountable for the quality of the care they provide. This is the emerging standard to replace volume-based service, whereby hospitals and doctors are compensated for how many tests and treatments they order, without any consideration of the patient outcomes that result from treatment.

Education needs to similarly move toward tracking academic outcomes to prove that it is actually worth the expense. Recent graduates offer a bleak review of the value they feel they are currently getting. Institutions should be held accountable for what academic and professional accomplishments their students are able to achieve. Whether it is proficiency at the next level of education, or employment in a career relevant to the student’s area of study, there needs to be a clearer link between outcomes and educational inputs. This may fall short of holding individual teachers and professors accountable for student performance, but it can certainly serve to better enable students and their families to evaluate prospective schools, programs, and balanced the associated costs against the opportunities.

Break Down Legacy Instruction

Doctors and nurses need more leadership training, better preparation to lead and participate in health teams. Technological disruption, breakthrough research, and a tenuous regulatory atmosphere mean clinicians are challenged to be nimble and adaptive.

Teachers, likewise, need better instruction and empowerment to not just cope, but to drive cultural change and innovation in the classroom. The world doesn’t just need more expert individuals in the classroom and ER, it needs collaborative leadership and creativity to ensure the delivery of these critical services continues to advance alongside the rest of society. Continuing Education standards for both classes of professionals emphasize the need to keep up with a dynamic, ever-changing field; leadership training would empower them to be proactive innovators, rather than reacting to the external forces at play around them.

Embrace Technology – Join or Die

The legacy systems and individual approaches to records technology in healthcare has made the mandatory shift to digital currently underway a long headache. While patients are enthusiastic and receptive to the new norms, many clinicians are still resistant to the change, and the gap is a significant obstacle to improving engagement. Patient health depends on their engagement with clinicians, and technology can help bridge the divide between clinical expert and patient.

Modern students are similarly more receptive toward emerging technology, from mobile to virtual platforms and tools. Teachers need more than instruction in the latest methods and tools—they need a combination of incentives and some amount of external pressure to become more proactive in integrating technology into the classroom, and leading student engagement with digital tools.

Students require the same sort of engagement to ensure comprehension, retention, and learning are all actually taking place. What is more, both doctors and teachers need to learn to get as comfortable with technology as their patients and students are, and use them to maximize engagement to reach the full population they serve.

This isn’t just a matter of rewarding the individuals who are proactive about learning, understanding, and communicating, but ensuring everyone who is access both education and healthcare is receiving the full value of that exposure. Learning and health maintenance alike continue well after such encounters, and telemedicine and distance learning platforms show a lot of promise to increase exposure, if not engagement.

Books are Drugs

Drug companies have too long a history of raising medicine prices without account or controls, and the doctors prescribing them to patients with no alternative are all captive to the choices of their care providers.

In academia, cadres of textbook publishers have a similarly captive market with no recourse and no obvious alternative. Not only should instructors be enabled and rewarded for taking advantage of lower cost digital, open source, or otherwise liberated resources through greater technology integration, but the schools and university systems that guarantee demand for books should exert greater pressure on publishers to stop taking advantage of the system. Students, like patients, are not positioned to be their own best advocates to control prices; the systems they patronize out of necessity must take up the role on their behalf, and challenge the status quo that has gone on unaccountable for far too long.

Maintenance is Key

In spite of the pace of change in the 21st century, the standard model for education starts in childhood, climaxes with impossibly-expensive universities, and then is relegated to the individual to acquire “on-the-job” training and mentorship. Resources are limited to the classroom, and after commencement, remain exclusive. That is like a diabetic seeing a doctor once and being counted on to successfully manage the condition indefinitely, and catch up with changes in science and medical technology independently.

In a perfect world, emergency medical interventions would be displaced by the tendency for people to take better care of themselves, prevent the escalation of minor ailments and conditions, and only visit their doctors for routine services, instead of reactive treatment. Instead, patients habitually neglect their health, postpone visits to the doctor as long as possible, and seek emergency care for conditions that started out as casual lifestyle choices.

Education, like health, is cumulative. Eating one healthy meal does not lead to weight loss, until it becomes a regular habit. Lifelong learning—or continuing education—is often relegated to a specific class of professional (doctors and nurses, as well as teachers, are all expected to keep abreast of best practices and emerging knowledge in their fields), rather than embraced across the spectrum of professionals. Given the intrusion of technology, communications networks, and globalization in virtually every field, few can claim that knowledge and skills in their profession has remained static, immune from these disruptive influences. Continuing education deserves the resources and public-private support to become standard for all skilled professions.

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Edgar Wilson is an Oregon native with a passion for cooking, trivia, and politics. He studied conflict resolution and international relations and has worked in industries ranging from international marketing to broadcast journalism. He is currently working as an independent analytical consultant. He can be reached via email here or on Twitter @EdgarTwilson.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 22, 2016

Tips on getting middle schoolers interested in college

A guest post by Carol Miller

I went into our 7th grade Family and Consumer Science classes both yesterday and today. The kids had just finished a research project on a career they were interested in. It was great to be able to go into classes and talk with them as they have just finished their research.

I started by asking them several questions:

Who has ever been on a college campus?
How many of them have researched a career that requires some sort of training or college?
Can everyone attend college? (Many “No” answers were given.)

I ended my questioning with:

What are some reasons you think people don’t go to college?

The answers they gave me included:

people can’t afford it
maybe they aren’t smart enough
they have disabilities
they don’t want to go

I then talked to them about how college can be affordable. Even Cornell University (which is in our backyard) has a program where if your parents make under a certain amount, has a no loan program. This makes it truly affordable for everyone.We also crossed off the list “not smart enough.” Community colleges will accept everyone from the counties they serve. You may not be able to get into a particular major right away, but you can take the classes that will help you to get there.”Disabilities.” Some colleges have special programs for students with even significant disabilities. Maybe students won’t earn a degree, but they will learn independent living skills and job training skills to help them find a job.”Don’t want to go.” Really this is the only reason for people not to attend college. My hope for them, however, is that they want to, and will help them get there.

From there we played College Prep BINGO.

I also had them fill out the I Have A Plan worksheet, which I have hanging in the hallway outside my office.

Just before it was time to leave I talked to them about this month’s College Spotlight (Marist College) and I asked them to write on a post it note one thing that they learned with me today. I had them post it on an easel located by the classroom door.

These are my favorite responses:

You can go to college even if you don’t have enough $.
College is complicated
College isn’t a dream, it’s a plan.
That it is never too early to think about college.

How do you promote early college awareness?

This post originally appeared on The Middle School Counselor, and was republished with permission.

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Carol has organized School Counseling Conferences for several years in Central New York through TACA and has presented at these conferences on College Admissions, Best School Counseling Programs, and Sharing Counseling Resources. She is a member and past President of the Tompkins Area Counselor Association, and a member of NYSSCA and NACAC, and NYSACAC. Carol is a mom to three sons, a crafter at heart, and a soccer and basketball coach in her free time.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership February 22, 2016

K-12 education: The art of the flop

“**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest column by Bruce Deitrick Price

If you try to find something intelligent going on in the public schools, you’ll probably end up frustrated. Like Diogenes looking for an honest man.

Is it really so bad?

I think so. Our Education Establishment, which is far more ideology-driven than most people realize, has been tossing out content willy-nilly for decades. That’s the simplest way to advance their Progressive (i.e., collectivist) agenda. Kids who don’t know much will be easier to manipulate. (This first point is impossible to refute. All surveys reveal that American citizens no longer know even the most basic things: how many stars are on the flag, how many quarts are in a gallon, where Texas is on a map—the sort of easy information that children should learn by middle school.)

Just as destructive, our Education Establishment works systematically to undermine those habits of mind which schools, for thousands of years, tried to encourage: precision, promptness, industriousness, attention to detail, concentration, self-discipline, etc.

Our schools are abandoning much of what was once designated by the word “education.” Our K-12 schools prefer social engineering and psychological manipulation. So, we see the education commissars arrogantly scheming at the dark intersection of sabotage, surrender, and thespianism.

In sports, they have the perfect term for what is happening: the flop.

That’s when a player, particularly in basketball or soccer, pretends to be bumped aggressively. Picture perfectly healthy athletes, not hit hard, reeling over backward in order to create the illusion that they have been knocked down.

Typically, a single athlete flops. Occasionally you see two flopping in tandem. But imagine you have what would, in the Olympics, be a new event: synchronized flopping. That’s what we have in education. Every facet is flopping simultaneously. Content is dismissed. Proven methods are deliberately ignored. Memorization is scorned. Discipline is systematically undercut. Ambition is stigmatized. Ennobling goals are mocked. Everything except grand but empty platitudes is flopped and dropped.

Everybody— from Obama and Arne Duncan down to superintendents and principals and all the way to administrators and teachers—knows how to flop. They lie on the ground, grunting and grimacing, Oh, the pain of a school system that never seems able to stay on its feet. Alas, constant flopping is its destiny. Its chosen destiny.

Realize that virtually all the literacy “experts” in America endorse gimmicks that are known not to work. Consider that the entire Education Establishment cheered for New Math and Reform Math, even though all the scores went down. Reflect that Common Core embraces so many bad ideas it can probably be summed up in four words: “biggest flop in history” (in both senses).

There is a long list of things that kids need to focus on and did focus on, once upon a time. Nowadays, the Education Establishment encourages children to wander pointlessly in their own personal voids. Education is an afterthought. I suggest that flopping is the main activity throughout the public schools and has been for at least a half-century.

John Dewey and all his friends (let’s say the top 500 people) had PhD’s in Education, Psychology or Sociology. Basically, these were new fields without any solid content except the raging desire to tell everybody else what to do and how to think. These nouveau intellectuals viewed themselves as world-changers, much like President Obama with his pretentious notion he’s going to fundamentally transform the country.

John Dewey circa 1900 thought exactly the same thing. He and his gang were going to fundamentally transform America. They would do it by flopping –- that is, pretending to fail –- in every aspect of traditional K-12 education. It would be failure by careful design. It would be failure by dramatic acting. We are still living with the wreckage and decline caused by this synchronized flopping.

It’s hard not to think in terms of comedy, Ponzi schemes, bank scandals, absurd frauds. Remember when the Mafia robbed the JFK airport in the 1970s (the robbery depicted in Goodfellas). One night, the bad guys just walked in and took what they wanted. That’s what has happened in our public schools. The people in charge turn their backs and let thieves and shysters sneak in and loot the place.

Apparently, an upper echelon degree in education today is a degree in flopping. You learn how to underperform in all of your duties.

Teach children to read? Oh, of course. You will give this task everything you’ve got and somehow make sure that millions of children are still illiterate in the eighth grade. That’s the art of the flop.

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Bruce Deitrick Price’s ed site is Improve-Education.org. (His new novel is The Man Who Falls In Love With His Wife, romantic drama set in Manhattan. Info and e-book here. )