Education News

Matthew Lynch published in Education News, International Education

Young scientists seek solutions to South Africa’s higher education crisis

This article was written by Sahal Yacoob and Karen Jacqueline Cloete

The South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) has decided it is time to speak out about the country’s higher education crisis. The academy constitutes 50 young academics and 20 alumni from multiple disciplines – including health sciences, natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. They are selected on academic merit from institutions of higher education and research.

This is a summary of a statement formulated at the organisation’s 2016 general assembly in October. In it, the academy warns of “catastrophic” consequences if university protests continue and no long-term solutions to the sector’s complex, multi-tiered problems are implemented.

We are acutely aware of the challenges that students face. We teach and supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students. These are South Africa’s future young academics.

We financed the completion of our own higher education. A number of us are now burdened with high levels of debt that – as young academics employed in varied temporary, permanent, funded and self-funded positions –- we struggle to repay.

As a group of young academics committed to the South African academic project, we can no longer avoid engaging with these crucial issues at this complicated moment. If this situation remains unresolved, the implications will be catastrophic. This is true for undergraduate and postgraduate students, including both South African and international students. Those who are on time-limited bursaries and fellowships are also at risk.

As an example, if any academic year is compromised, the country could experience a shortage of medical doctors and allied health professionals. Internship placements in those fields will be vacant without graduates. This will place further stress on an overburdened public health system upon which most South Africans rely.

There has so far been a lack of constructive leadership at the national level and lack of effective engagement between staff and student leaders. This has triggered escalating tensions. It has also led to the development of unproductive, often confrontational and personalised debates. These run counter to the principles of scholarly engagement. They hinder the possibility of finding collective solutions to this crisis.

We call for urgent and peaceful resolutions across our campuses that will result in the removal of police and private security. We want to avoid confrontations between police and private security with students and staff. We acknowledge the presence of diverse experiences of structural and direct violence, and the threat these forms of violence pose across our campuses.

We also acknowledge that the presence of police and security is experienced differently. It creates contexts in which teaching, learning, research and innovation cannot take place.

Universities need to recognise the anxiety and psychological trauma experienced by many staff and students during this period. Institutions must commit to addressing this trauma and anxiety. Doing so will help facilitate the resumption of high-quality teaching and learning when institutions reopen.

Recommendations

It’s crucial to develop spaces for respectful engagement that acknowledges and supports continued debate and differences of opinion. We offer our members as a resource to support constructive national dialogue on this crisis.

Fee-free higher education could be financed in different ways, guided through the development of evidence-informed financing models. But it is not academics alone who ought to be involved in this process.

We call on the President of South Africa to:

  • urgently address the root cause and not just the symptoms of the crisis being experienced across institutes of higher education;
  • commit to increased funding streams for the sector, which will improve equity in access to quality higher education;
  • immediately convene a national dialogue. It needs to include student, parent and academic representatives. University administrators, the private sector and industry must also be included. This will be a safe space to discuss approaches and develop a consensus statement committing to realising the goal of fee-free quality higher education for poor and “missing middle” students. The missing middle are those whose parents earn too much money to qualify for government loans but not enough to afford tuition;
  • urgently reformulate the emergency task team he established around this crisis to include the National Treasury. This is necessary to move away from reducing the crisis to one associated only with security concerns. The National Treasury is a key player in realising funding goals.

It’s also important that the President work with the fees commission he established to complete its inquiry into different financing models. The commission needs to release an approved model for implementing fee-free quality higher education for poor and “missing middle” students.

We offer the President our academy’s expertise to support the development of sustainable solutions.

Dire consequences

South Africa will struggle to maintain and grow its internationally respected research-intensive environment if academic programmes are suspended and university campuses closed.

The country’s academy and science innovation needs room to transform and grow. We are very concerned that this crisis will negate the gains made to date – and will have dire consequences moving forward.

The Conversation

Sahal Yacoob, Experimental Particle Physics, University of Cape Town and Karen Jacqueline Cloete, Postdoctoral researcher in the biological applications of ion beam analysis techniques, iThemba LABS

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education News, International Education

New partnerships are needed to arrest economic malaise in South Africa

This article was written by Steve Koch

South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presented his 2016 mid-term budget on the back of a crisis in higher education funding characterised by widespread national student protests. The Conversation Africa’s business and economy editor Sibonelo Radebe asked Steve Koch to weigh the minister’s speech.

What is your reaction to the minister’s statements on funding higher education? Could he have done better?

The minister’s statements were well calculated, measured, and responsible in the current climate. The additional increase in National Student Aid Financial Scheme funds should go quite some way towards improving access to post-school education.

Assuming “better” means finding money to fund “free education for all, immediately”, the answer is no. Despite what student activists would like to believe, free education for all is pro-rich. This is because, disproportionately, students who qualify for post-school education come from richer households.

The answer is a more nuanced “maybe” if “better” means finding more money to help poor students fund their tertiary education. There are options, not necessarily palatable to all, such as privatisation of state-owned enterprises, which might raise revenue and reduce pressure on the fiscus. But changes of that nature would not be made in a medium-term budget. They would more likely feature in the State of the Union Address.

What should be done to address the higher education crisis in the long term?

There appear to be two components to this crisis. The one that appears to have driven the initial #FeesMustFall movement is that post-school education is relatively expensive and, even though funding for post-school education is one of the fastest rising budget items, student numbers have risen faster.

The bigger problem is that the economy has not grown fast enough to absorb workers for far too long. Students or their parents are left with potentially crippling debt and yet limited prospects to repay. Dealing with this will require some creativity, and a willingness to experiment to engender positive change in the economy. In my view, positive change requires opening up space and creating funding opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesspeople, while working to limit “rent-seeking”. Corruption, bribery and collusion are common forms of rent-seeking, which is the use of a position of power (political, economic or otherwise) to further your one’s own interests.

But one of the undercurrents of the current crisis is political, not economic. There is a desire for change, period. Thus, we see the rejection of democratically elected student council representatives, the rejection of current curricula and the rejection of socially accepted rules of engagement, among other things. Dealing with this will have to go far beyond the structures of a medium term budget.

What do you think credit rating agencies are taking out of this budget?

The medium term budget did not signal any big changes in policy associated with either large increases in budget deficits or long-term debt. And the minister was adamant that South Africa was able to control its own destiny.

These were important pronouncements because they underscored a commitment to budget sustainability.

The credit rating agencies are likely to take solace from this. But the minister is not capable of changing the economy overnight. And there are international risks, as well as local economic and political risks, beyond his control that remain important factors in credit rating decisions. Politically, uncertainty surrounding the minister’s continued appointment, as well as any potential replacement’s commitment to sound fiscal management, remains. Similarly, uncertainty surrounding the US Presidential elections, and the US’s continuing commitment to either free trade or Africa cannot be discounted. Economically, Brexit and the resultant relationship between Europe, the UK and Africa create further uncertainties about South Africa’s growth potential.

Given the prevailing political environment do you think the finance minister will achieve what he has set out to do?

One way to define the minister’s job description is that he has the responsibility to pay – sustainably – for activities that government would like to fund. He spoke about the realities of the local and international economic situation. He also restated the importance of creating a South Africa that was different (and far better) than the one inherited in 1994.

The reality is that government’s ability to directly fund new activities has decreased. But if business and civil society become more involved, government’s need to directly fund new activities will decrease.

For me one of the key takeaways was the message that the country’s full potential requires not just the government, but also the efforts of the private sector and civil society. If I’m reading this correctly it could herald the beginning of positive change in the economy and society.

It remains to be seen whether this theme permeates future government policy actions, or whether business and civil society begin to work with government and each other to achieve positive change. But the minister’s efforts are likely to open fiscal space, and, therefore, could help achieve what is required.

The Conversation

Steve Koch, Professor of Economics, University of Pretoria

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Education News, Teachers

The Key to STEM Achievement: Answering the Question

‘When Am I Going to Use This?’

In Maureen Foelkl’s classroom at Chapman Hill Elementary School in Salem, Oregon, second and third grade students designed solutions to seasonal flooding and erosion in their community with the help of actual engineers in the field.

The project won Foelkl the Presidential Award of Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. While working on it her students learned about complicated concepts such as how a flood plain works, how structures can keep water out, and what kinds of materials can hold water in.

Foelkl invited civil engineers to talk with her students about these topics either in person or through interactive conversations that took place online. Her students then designed and tested their own prototype structures for mitigating the effects of or for withstanding a flood.

Foelkl, who is now an independent contractor writing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum for multiple organizations, says her students were highly engaged throughout the project. Having outside experts speak with them “brought authenticity to the lesson,” she says. “My students asked questions that I could not begin to answer.”

She adds: “No textbook I know can come close to interacting with students in that fashion.”

Making It Real

Research suggests the No. 1 reason students avoid STEM-related courses or careers is because they don’t see the relevance of what they are learning. In other words, there is a huge gap between what is happening in the classroom and in the real world.

Clearly, it’s time for a new approach—and Foelkl and many others have found that connecting students with actual STEM professionals helps make these subjects come alive in ways that a textbook just can’t replicate.

In Oregon, the state has created nearly a dozen STEM Partnerships, or regional hubs in which leaders from the education, business, and nonprofit communities come together to design community-based solutions to their STEM workforce challenges.

The South Metro-Salem STEM Partnership is one such hub, which serves districts in the Salem and Portland areas—accounting for about 25 percent of the state’s students. A key element of their effort is Oregon Connections, which is connecting students (and teachers) with industry experts. These STEM-related professionals come into the classroom either in-person or virtually to make science and math more meaningful for students.

“To me, the most important thing is making it real,” says Melissa Dubois, director of the South Metro Salem STEM Partnership. “We don’t get the innovations we get by magic. You don’t get an iPhone because it just materialized from nowhere; there are people with skills and expertise who have a really great time trying to dream up and build these kinds of products.”

Through Oregon Connections, teachers can request scientists, engineers, and other STEM-related experts to visit their classrooms in person or through an online conversation to talk about the work they do and why it’s important. The online conversations are powered by Nepris, which matches teachers with STEM experts from anywhere in the country and also hosts the video conferences.

Teacher, Maureen Foelkl, guides her third graders from Chapman Hill Elementary School in Salem, Oregon through a STEM lesson and brings in industry experts to her class virtually using Nepris or for in-class visits using Oregon Connections.
Teacher, Maureen Foelkl, guides her third graders from Chapman Hill Elementary School in Salem, Oregon through a STEM lesson and brings in industry experts to her class virtually using Nepris or for in-class visits using Oregon Connections.

“I have been using Oregon Connections extensively over the past three years,” says Dylan McCann, a sixth grade math and science teacher at Twality Middle School in Tigard, Oregon. “We’ve met virtually with programmers, military defense engineers, naval architects, and pilots. My students have had the opportunity to see actual professionals using concepts we have been learning in the classroom—and that gives them an answer to the age-old question: ‘When am I ever going to use this?’”

Opening Students’ Eyes to New Possibilities

Besides making STEM topics more engaging and relevant for students, bringing industry experts into the classroom also opens students’ eyes to new career choices they might never have considered before. And, having the entire world of professionals at their fingertips through Nepris means there are virtually no limits on whom they can talk to.

Dubois says it’s important for students to know that the things they love to do could lead directly to a career: “If you’re an outdoor kind of kid, there’s a role for you. Do you love exploring the woods after school? There are people who do this for a living, and it’s a really important job, because it helps us manage our resources and be good stewards of the environment.”

That personal connection, now fulfilled by Oregon Connections, seems to be missing in many classrooms, she adds. And even though it might only be 30 minutes with somebody on a giant screen through the Nepris connection or a short in-person visit arranged by the partnership, “it’s far more impactful than the teacher saying, ‘You could be an engineer when you grow up.’” When students are exposed to actual professionals who are doing this work on a daily basis, those are the things they remember. They remember the people, not the words.”

The Oregon Connections program has “opened doors to occupations that hone in on students’ interests,” Foelkl says. “I have my students tell me at the beginning of the year what they might want to do after high school. The most frequent answers used to be a veterinarian, a zookeeper, a teacher, or someone in the military. These are all grand occupations, but somewhat limiting.” After hearing from STEM professionals, she says, “I had students tell me they want to work on plane engines, become a chemical engineer, become an inventor and open their own business, teach others about how to stay safe, lead environmental causes, write their own code—and still care for animals.”

Students in Maureen Foelkl’s third-grade class at Chapman Hill Elementary School in Salem, Oregon designed solutions to flooding and erosion with help from professionals linked to their class through Oregon Connections.
Students in Maureen Foelkl’s third-grade class at Chapman Hill Elementary School in Salem, Oregon designed solutions to flooding and erosion with help from professionals linked to their class through Oregon Connections.

Seeing STEM professionals who look like them also helps address a lack of equity in these fields.

“I purposely try to bring in professionals who can personally connect with my young girls and students of color,” McCann says. “I think it is extremely important to give students in the underrepresented demographics (role models) they can look up to and have conversations with. For instance, last year my students were learning about thermal energy transference, and I had a young African American woman talk to my students about what it’s like to design, build, and test rockets—and what it’s like to get to blow things up for a living. She spoke about her journey as an African American woman (in a STEM-related field), and she showed my students that with perseverance and a great attitude, they can achieve anything they ever want.”

He concludes: “Giving my students the opportunity to connect with real people using what we are learning in class every day is invaluable. Without this real-world exposure, there is no context to what we are doing in the classroom. I have seen my students remember concepts and maintain excitement for careers they never thought possible, years after a visit with a professional. Bringing professionals into my classroom will continue to be a part of my teaching strategy for years to come.”

 

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education News, First Year Teachers, Parental Involvement, Teachers, Testing

Want to understand your child’s test scores? Here’s what to ignore

Stephen Sireci, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Now that the first month of school is over, parents can get ready for the next milestone of the school year – they will soon get reports of the state tests their children took last year.

My estimates show that approximately 26 million students in public schools took statewide tests in reading and math last year. Many of them also took statewide tests in science. These tests provide important information to parents about how well their children are doing in school.

However, my research also shows that when parents receive their child’s test score report, they may have a tough time separating the important information from the statistical gibberish.

What’s more, the results might not even give them accurate information about their child’s academic growth.

Is your child ‘proficient’?

The No Child Left Behind law, enacted in 2002, required all states to set “achievement level standards” in reading and math for grades three through eight, and for one grade in high school, typically 10th or 11th grade. States were also required to develop tests to measure students’ level of “proficiency” on each test.

The new federal law passed in December 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), will continue this practice.

As a result, the test reports parents receive classify children into achievement levels such as “basic” or “proficient.” Each state decides what these classifications are called, but at least one category must signify “proficient.”

These achievement level categories are described on the test score reports, and so this information is easily understood by parents. For example, I find it helpful each year to see if my sons reach proficiency in each subject area.

How is student growth being measured?
Student image via www.shutterstock.com

But children’s test scores in a given year, and their achievement level, are not the only information reported in some states. A new statistical index, called a “student growth percentile,” is finding its way into the reports sent home to parents in 11 states. Twenty-seven states use this index for evaluating teachers as well.

Although a measure of students’ “growth” or progress sounds like a good idea, student growth percentiles have yet to be supported by research. In fact several studies suggest they do not provide accurate descriptions of student progress and teacher effectiveness.

What does it mean?

What exactly are “student growth percentiles”?

They are indexes proposed in 2008 by Damian W. Betebenner, a statistician who suggested they be used as a descriptive measure of students’ “academic growth” from one school year to the next. The idea was to describe students’ progress in comparison to their peers.

Like the growth charts pediatricians use to describe children’s height and weight, student growth percentiles range from a low of one to a high of 99. However, their calculation involves a lot more error than physical measurement such as height and weight. Our research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates substantial error in their calculation.

The scores do not actually measure children’s growth.
Children image via www.shutterstock.com

Student growth percentiles are derived from test scores, which are not perfectly accurate descriptions of students’ academic proficiency: Test scores are influenced by many factors, such as the questions asked on a particular day, students’ temperament, their level of engagement when taking the test or just the methods used to score their answers.

Each student’s growth percentile is calculated using at least two different test scores, typically a year or more apart. The most recent test scores of a student are then compared to the most recent test scores of students who had similar scores in previous years. This is to see which of those students had higher or lower scores this year.

The problem, however, is that each of the calculations carries some measurement error. Further calculations only compound that error. So much so that the results end up with twice as much error. No statistical sophistication can erase this error.

The question is, why are so many states using such an unreliable measure?

Using it for accountability

The use of student growth percentiles is due in part to a desire to see how much students learn in a particular year, and to link that progress to accountability systems such as teacher evaluation.

In 2010, the Race-to-the-Top grant competition invited states to come up with innovative ways of using test scores to evaluate teachers, which paved the way for this new measure of “growth” to be quickly applied across many states.

However, the use of student growth percentiles began before research was conducted on their accuracy. Only now is there a sufficient body of research to evaluate them, and all studies point to the same conclusion – they contain a lot of error.

In addition to our research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, research on the accuracy of student growth percentiles has been conducted by education nonprofits such as WestEd, Educational Testing Service and other research institutions. Researchers J.R. Lockwood and Katherine E. Castellano recently concluded that “A substantial research base already notes that student growth percentile estimates for individual students have large errors.”

However, many states seem to be unaware of these research findings. Massachusetts even goes so far as to classify children with growth percentiles less than 40 as “lower growth” and children with growth percentiles greater than 60 as “higher growth.”

Measuring teacher performance

As I mentioned earlier, 27 states are using student growth percentiles to classify teachers as “effective” or “ineffective.” Research on the use of growth percentiles for this purpose indicates they could underestimate the performance of the most effective teachers, and overestimate the performance of the least effective teachers – the exact opposite of what these states are trying to do with their teacher evaluation systems.

These measures are being used for teacher performance as well.
Teacher image via www.shutterstock.com

A recent report by WestEd evaluated the use of student growth percentiles for evaluating teachers and concluded they “did not meet a level of stability” that would be needed for such high-stakes decisions.

Let’s go back to traditional measures

I believe student growth percentiles have taken us a step backwards in the use of educational tests to improve student learning.

Traditional measures of children’s performance on educational tests, such as whether they are “proficient” in a given year and their actual test scores, give a good idea of how well they performed in math or reading in a particular year.

These traditional percentile ranks are still reported on many educational tests, just like they were when we as parents were in school. Traditional percentile ranks compared us to a national or state group in a given year, rather than comparing us to how other kids in the nation or state were “growing” across different tests they took in different years, as student growth percentiles attempt to do.

Given what we now know about student growth percentiles, my advice to parents is not only to ignore them on their children’s test score reports, but also to contact their state department of education and ask why they are reporting such an unreliable statistic.

Developing measures of how much students have learned over the course of a year is a good goal. Unfortunately, student growth percentiles do not do a good job of measuring that.

The Conversation

Stephen Sireci, Professor of Educational Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Bullying, Education Leadership, Education News, Teachers

Could Cyberbullying Be Causing a Rise in Absenteeism?

Seventy-one percent of teens use more than one social networking site.

Think about that statistic for a second. Roughly seven out of every ten teens are sifting through a combination of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and a multitude of other sites. Ninety-two percent of teens browse the internet daily, and 24 percent report they are “online constantly.”

Technology is now the common way of life, especially for teens. With the widespread use of this technology, it should not be surprising teens have adopted an age-old practice to fit into this digital age — bullying.

Cyberbullying as a practice is simple to understand. Teens pick on other teens through the use of technological platforms. And yes, it is a big deal. Almost 43 percent of kids have reported they have been cyberbullied. So, when kids are being harassed through social media or even in person, what is their defense? How can they prevent this? Many think there is only one answer. And that’s to simply not show up to school.

Absenteeism is not a new issue for the education community. One of the educator’s main jobs is to take attendance and make sure their students are showing up to class. If they don’t show up, then it is the educator’s responsibility to notify the administration of an absent child. New studies that look into absenteeism give stunning results that should be raising red flags.

In a study that encompassed over 500 school districts, it was found that 30 percent of students missed at least three weeks of school for the entire year. Three weeks equals out to 15 days of learning and development these kids miss out on. While this statistic is alarming, the question that naturally comes up is what is causing this high percentage of absences. While sickness and family issues are a natural part of the process, ABC News conducted a study on cyberbullying and found some intriguing results.

According to the ABC study, 160,000 students stay home from school every day because of bullying. That means 160,000 students are not getting a proper education because of the presence of bullying in all forms and shapes. It may blow you away, but it’s apparent that bullying is a serious problem in school and should not, under any circumstance, be ignored or thrown to the wayside.

Specifically, cyberbullying is a tough act to stop. While teachers can break up fights and keep students away from each other physically, the online arena is a whole different world. Harassment doesn’t just stop when the kids go home for the day. It follows them.

Facebook posts, insulting tweets and horrific Instagram pictures are all tools for cyberbullies. And then there are the texts, which put down the victim and pummel their mind until they believe what the bully is saying.

With cyberbulling being so prevalent, it’s hard to contain it and stop it. Technology is great in so many respects and is used quite often in the classroom. Chromebooks are employed in many schools on a regular basis for testing and enhancing the students’ learning experience. Built-in projectors that hang on the classroom ceiling allow teachers and students to explore any question they have about a topic as the internet is just a click and keystroke away. Technology isn’t going anywhere and is already becoming a normal method of teaching in the classroom.

The technology in the classroom also allows for a diversity of experiences to be seen, felt and heard. Students who learn better by doing can participate in experiential learning on their laptops while students who listen well can watch examples of their lessons play out on their computers. Technology allows all types of learning to occur, which is the goal of every teacher who cares about their students.

While correlation does not prove causation, technology does open up a new avenue for bullying. As with most things in life, there are good things and bad things associated with it. Taking away technology is not going to solve the problem of cyberbullying and absenteeism. Instead, educators and parents need to come up with a strategy to monitor their students’ and children’s activities online.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Current Ed News, EdTech & Innovation, Education Leadership, Education News,

Understanding the Teacher Shortage Crisis and the Solutions to Fix it

By Keith Lockwood

According to numerous sources, America is experiencing a nationwide teacher shortage that will undoubtedly escalate to a crisis within the next two years. Recent reports state that there are currently over 30,000 teacher vacancies this year that will increase to 70,000 over the next two years. The reasons for the decline in the number of teachers are correlated to teacher evaluation systems blended with high stakes standardized testing implemented over the past ten years, a shrinking student base in teacher education programs, a lack of respect for the teaching profession, and low salaries and benefits. These variables lead to challenging circumstances for urban, suburban and rural school districts across the country.

Read the rest of this article on The Huffington Post.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education News, Equity, HBCU's, Higher Education, Secondary Education

Three Ways Louisiana Is Getting Students Career-Ready

By requiring industry-based credentials for CTE students and encouraging all students to interact with industry professionals, Louisiana’s Jump Start program is revolutionizing career education

In Louisiana, only 19 percent of high school students go on to receive a four-year college degree. There are plenty of high-paying jobs available for the other 81 percent, but matching students with these opportunities and making sure they have the right credentials—like a two-year degree or industry certification—has always been a challenge.

For years, Louisiana students have been able to earn a Career Diploma as an alternative to a traditional academic diploma. But the program was seldom used, and students working toward a Career Diploma weren’t being adequately prepared for jobs in high-demand fields.

In short, there was little or no connection between Louisiana’s career education strategy and its workforce needs. State leaders knew they needed a better approach.

Read the rest of this article on the Huffington Post.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Current Ed News, EdTech & Innovation, Education Leadership, Education News,

Instead of textbooks, why not pay teachers for content?

By Brandon Wilmarth

As an English teacher in Oklahoma’s Moore Public Schools, I was recruited by some textbook providers to help them create content. It was a lot of fun, and I was happy to make some extra money doing it. But there are so many teachers in our district who are much more talented than I am. If I was developing curriculum materials that school systems across the nation were purchasing, they certainly could be doing this, too.

So when I became a technology integration specialist for the district, one of my long-term goals was to leverage the expertise of our teachers in creating high-quality digital content.

Teachers are already scouring the web for videos, articles, and other free instructional resources, then pulling these together into coherent lessons and adding their own valuable context to help students understand the material or promote deeper lines of inquiry.

My thought was, why don’t we take some of the money we’re hemorrhaging on expensive, print-based textbooks that aren’t interactive and don’t effectively capture students’ imagination—and use it to pay our teachers more money for their efforts instead?

Our vision is to create a central repository of exemplary digital content that is developed and curated by teachers, for teachers in our district. All teachers would have access to these shared instructional materials. Not all teachers would be required to contribute, but those who do could receive a stipend for their work if it’s approved as a district-vetted lesson or unit.

This would allow us to use our most powerful assets—our teachers—to their fullest potential, while also recognizing and giving value to teachers for the lesson planning and content creation they already do so well.

That’s important, because in Oklahoma, our teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation—and many leave the profession after only a few years. Honoring their talents and contributions could help stop this mass exodus of young teachers as well as veteran content experts and keep them in our schools.

To realize this vision, we needed to have a technology platform that would support teachers in creating and sharing digital lessons. We found this platform in Ogment, which helped us create curriculum by making it easier to grab digital content, including what we found on the web, and turn that into useable lessons for our classrooms.

Part of the problem is not the lack of resources, but rather the overabundance of resources. Every teacher knows how much great content exists online—but managing it all can be a nightmare. Ogment has let our teachers clip videos, articles, games, and other internet resources and put them into lessons or presentations with a simple drag-and-drop process. Then, they can embed questions within a lesson to check for students’ understanding or prompt further discussion—and they can easily share their lessons with other teachers.

Our teachers have used the service to “flip” their classrooms and even personalize instruction. For instance, Tiffany Truesdell, a math teacher at Westmoore High School, says she has used Ogment to make customized lessons for her students.

“I can assign a lesson that presents all the material, and as students go through the lesson, I can have questions that check for their understanding just as if I were presenting the material in class. I can pull videos from any website to enhance the lesson, and if I only want a small section of the video, Ogment lets me assign just that portion of the video in my lesson,” she says.

“Ogment also allows me to differentiate a lesson. For example, if I have a student on an IEP who needs multiple choice, but I want the other students to have a free response question, I can create the lesson once but with differentiated questions. When the questions come up, it will give the IEP student the multiple choice question instead.”

Mrs. Truesdell’s example shows that with the right technology, our district can build a shared repository of lessons that is truly usable. More importantly, a system like this allows our teachers to apply their talents and reignite their passion for creating great content.

We are working toward a model in which we pay teachers extra for the content they create and share through this tool. We’re not there yet; we’re still trying to free up the funding to be able to do this.

But when we come up with the funding to realize our vision, we’ll be able to pay our teachers extra for creating and sharing top-notch lessons—rewarding teachers for their work and restoring professionalism to the field.

Brandon Wilmarth is a technology integration specialist for Moore Public Schools in Oklahoma.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education News, Higher Education

Senator Elizabeth Warren criticizes education department over student loans

Senator Elizabeth Warren has written a blistering letter to the Department of Education’s acting Education Secretary John King regarding how the department handles student loan fraud.

In the letter, Warren accuses the department of not having a proper handle on student loan contractors, and specifically cites its relationship with Navient, formerly known as Sallie Mae.

In 2014, the Department of Education and Navient reached a settlement of $100 million due to Navient’s role in violating a federal law that pinches interest rates at 6% for servicemembers.

Warren’s issue isn’t necessarily with the settlement, it’s that the department has failed to oversee its relationship with Navient.

As the company holds millions of student loans, the department’s relationship with Navient hasn’t been impacted even as the company was found to have broken the law.

Moving forward, Warren not only wants the department to reassess its position with Navient, but wants to know why the company hasn’t been penalized further.

To put some fears to rest, the department launched an internal investigation into Navient’s loan practices and found that a small percentage of those who borrowed were not receiving the federally mandated rate.

Warren notes the Department of Education’s Inspector General revealed that the department’s internal investigation into Navient was flawed and erroneous.

Towards the end of the letter, Warren writes that the findings of an independent review of the department’s handling of student aid are that companies that are responsible for supervising student loan debt receive protection from the Department of Education when they break the law.

As students and former students grapple with how to pay back student loans and are harassed by the likes of companies like Navient, the information presented in Warren’s letter is damaging and sad.

If the Department of Education is indeed offering protection to companies that break the law, and are failing to properly shelter students from these organizations, it proves why so many students have little faith in college affordability and the government’s role in helping them.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Education Leadership, Education News

Are we getting closer to 1:1 iPad programs?

It’s been almost a half-decade since education communities started pushing for an iPad for each student in classrooms. The amount of individualized learning available on tablets that are equipped with Internet technology is virtually limitless, making customized learning more possible than ever. Many school districts are still trying to reach this standard, of course, but in the areas where the iPad-to-student ratio is 1:1, that connectivity is making a positive difference.

Recently, Carl Hooker, the creator of iPadpalooza and director of innovation and digital learning at Eanes ISD (TX), was honored as 2016’s Thought Leader of the Year by PR with Panache! Hooker was recognized for his district’s personalized learning initiative that has put iPads in the hands of 8,000 students. He’s also the founder of iPadpalooza – an event that brings together global education leaders to talk about the role of technology in classrooms and beyond. Hooker is the author of the Mobile Learning Mindset series that approaches the technology of learning from a positive place.

In 2014, Hooker was also named Leader of the Year by Tech & Learning.

What leaders like Hooker are getting right is this: technology can benefit teachers and students when it is implemented correctly. Screen time can never replace the benefit of one-on-one teacher contact — but in classrooms where individual attention is scarce (and that’s most of them), tapping technology for customized learning can be a complete game-changer. Finding ways to extend technology resources to the schools that need it the most should be a goal of any progressive education advocate because within technology is the capability to reach more students with more customized learning experiences.

You can learn more about Hooker’s award and work by clicking here. 

Has your district implemented a 1:1 iPad program yet? What sort of changes has it made in your classroom, for better or for worse?

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

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