Child care workforce increasingly diverse, as are children served

Key Points: This article brings together four concerns: early education, diversity, inequalities, and educators/caregivers. It is an important article to analyze our current state/debate/ concerns regarding education and diversity together.

Published: OregonLive- April 28th, 2015

Intended Audience: Educators, Caregivers, Parents, State Government

Relevance: The relevance of this article is to bring to the surface issues with diversity, cycles of socio-economic classes, and early childhood education. It is an important topic to discuss because we need to address diversity and make changes to our society that keep people within a "class". Education is where we can better ourselves and without that early foundation it is difficult to make improvements.

URL: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/04/child_care_workforce_increasin.html

Snapshot on SBAC

Smarter Balanced test gets a thumbs-up from these Beaverton students
Oregonian
Article by Wendy Owen
Audience: Public, Parents and Educators
Link: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2015/04/beaverton_students_like_smarte.html#comments
I know that there are many more stories and perspectives out in the schools, but I have to think this is a heavily biased report. This seems like a snapshot, but by no-means a mosaic. It will be interesting to see after the SBAC
is administered what the new realities will be versus the pre-test anxieties of parents,

Smart video games can assess kids

Smart video games can assess kids better than standardized tests, a new book saysBy Valerie Strauss April 21, 2015

link


Greg Toppo is releasing a book about using gaming technology to assess our students. It's called, " The Game Believes in You:  How Digital Play can make our Kids Smarter"  and it's being released tomorrow.
Toppo, who was a teacher for 8 years before becoming a journalist, has put his interest in technology and gaming together in this book.

This article briefly describes the book and includes an article written by Toppo himself .

The article is intended for educators, parents and administrators.

School Size and Spending per Pupil in the Nation's Capitol

D.C. Schools budget includes wide range in per-student spending

Washington Post, April 23,2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-budget-includes-wide-range-in-per-student-spending/2015/04/23/4e1027f0-e919-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?wprss=rss_Copy%20of%20local-alexandria-social&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Key Points:

• D.C. schools vary in per pupil spending from $16,467 to $8,312
• A parent group has made a website to track spending data by school in order to hold administration officials accountable
• The trends largely reflect the economy of scale that makes larger schools less expensive/student
• This data also allows correlation between funding and program offerings

Intended Audience:

• Practitioner Educators, Parents, twitter followers, readership

Relevance:

• The role that funding plays in education, and specifically in which types of schools we choose to teach in is a relevant consideration.  I am grateful for the parent’s gathering of data to root-out inappropriate funding allocation,
• I am curious to do more research on the policy implications of larger schools.  Could larger, more efficient schools free up money spent on maintenance or overlapping responsibilities be better spent to provide smaller classes, broader enrichment opportunities?

Teach for America (or Britain, Haiti, Lithuania...)

Teacher Recruitment, High-fliers in the Classroom.

The Economist. February 14th, 2015.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21643146-programmes-place-bright-and-ambitious-graduates-poor-schools-are-spreading-around

Key Points:

• The article asserts that problems in education are, at least in part, a result of the low-caliber of teacher recruits
• Teach for America is lauded as a solution, with discussion given to similar international organizations.
• Statistics provided in support: %50-%70 of TFA (and similar) participants stay in education after their two-year commitment.

Intended Audience:

• The regular readership of this broad spectrum magazine devoted to free trade, laissez faire government, and the dismal science.  

Relevance:

• With high likelihood of encountering teachers, administrators, and policy makers who began in TFA it is beneficial to understand a perspective in support of the program.
• I am curious about teacher education abroad, and certainly open to “copy-cat” models in countries with severe education needs.
• This particular perspective is problematic to the degree that it portrays these “high-fliers” as heroes who are the only hope for otherwise hopeless masses. Ivy-league success does not a culturally-competent public servant make.  

Is Common Core Tougher on Special Education Students?

Is Common Core Tougher on Special Education Students?
CBS News
April, 16, 2015

   This video shows a mother's perspective on how inappropriate it is for her child with special needs to be held to the same standards as his peers because he gets individualized instruction all year at his level. It also shows a classroom teacher who agrees that it seems like the standards are set too high for most children right now but thinks that raising the standards is "ultimately a good thing." He states that in his experience most students will rise to the occasion and often do better than you would expect them to.
 

Toddlers prepare for their first big interview

Toddlers prepare for their first big interview
By Helier Cheung

April 23, 2015BBC News, Hong Kong
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32040752

This article talks about how parents in Hong Kong are preparing their children at a young age to get into a good nursery in hopes of that leading to getting them into a good kindergarten. "The best nurseries and kindergartens are seen as a gateway into the best primary schools - which in turn, parents believe, pave the way to the best secondary schools and universities."
These parents are paying a lot of money to take their toddlers to interview classes to sharpen their interviewing skills so that they are more likely to pass their interview and get accepted into these nurseries. The interviewers are also watching how the parents interact with the child to see how much of their skills come naturally or if they seem to be rehearsed. The children are evaluated on social interactions with peers, level of eye contact, manners, and fine motor skills. 
I found this article interesting because these children are so young but they are already being prepared to meet high standards. It's sad to me because it seems like their childhood is being cut too short. It may be just a matter of time before we see this happening in America. 

Time Spent on Testing Info graphic

ASCD: Policy Points: Testing Time.

ASCD, March 2015

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/policypoints/Testing-Time-Mar-15.pdf

Key Points:

• A 2-sheet quick reference to current state of time spent testing in American Public Schools.
• Avg. # of mandated tests PreK-12: 113
• 11th graders get the worst of it: 27 days/year on average of standardized testing
• Urban and East Coast Schools require the most testing on average
• Common Core aligned tests seem to represent a cost savings/student

Intended Audience:

• Practitioner Educators, Parents, Policy makers

Relevance:

• As educators, which grade do you want to teach and where? I hope to stay away from 11th & 12th for now because of the testing burden.  I’d prefer the content, but not if I can’t teach it. How to fulfil requirements and achieve meaningful instruction.  As political participants, make voice heard.

Exciting ESEA re-write Developments

Senate Committee Reaches Agreement on New ESEA, April 7, 2015  

Diane Ravitch Blog

http://dianeravitch.net/2015/04/07/senate-committee-reaches-agreement-on-new-esea/

Key Points:

• Senate Commitee works on re-authorization of ESEA (Elementary & Secondary Education Act-- currently “No Child Left Behind.”)
• Removes
• Significant amount of Federal oversight/ tools for manipulation.
• “low-performing schools” sanctions
• Leaves
• Yearly testing in place
• Does not create vouchers
• Does not create Score Card for low-performing schools to provide funding differential transparency

Intended Audience:

Policy Wonks, School administrators, practicioners

Relevance:

New legislation in this direction could be a boon for teacher professionalism and what I see as more authentic learning.  It is important that this is only a Senate committee draft, subject to floor debate (if allowed) and the hugely partisan House before heading to Obama (who, by the way might now like how many of Arne Duncan’s tools/ initiatives are repudiated with this legislation).  If lame-duck congress can pass this before we start teaching, it will be a better footing at the beggining of our careers.

Racial Disproportionality in Special Education Assignment

Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education: The Failure to Prevent or to Return

Cartledge, G. (2005). Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education: The Failure to Prevent or to Return. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 3(1), 27-32.

http://www.cgu.edu/include/LDCJ.pdf#page=33

Key Points

1)Gen-ed Teacher Referrals are the overwhelming source of “socially-determined” Special-Ed. placements.  With this in mind, it is also important to note that African American students are 1.5 times more likely to be labeled with emotional and behavioral disorders than White classmates.  

2)The greatest correlative factors are in schools where the total African American student population is relatively low.  That is to say that while low-income schools do have some predictive value, where those schools are primarily African American there is less disproportionality in Special Ed referral and placement.

Intended Audience

Special Education Researchers, Practitioners, Administrators, Policy Makers, Academics

Relevance

The need for Gen-ed/Spec.-ed collaboration.  

Need for Statistical analysis to monitor inadvertent bias.

Need for great teacher support in Gen-ed & Spec-ed.

Interest-based Education for Students with Autism.

They Deserve Good Teaching, Too. Social justice in a classroom for students with autism.

Leanna Carollo, Rethinking Schools Spring 2015 Vol. 29 No.3

Key Points:

Leanna Carollo is a public school Special Edu. teaching in California and writing a reflection on her time working as an IA.  She takes issue with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) methods of instruction, and the inappropriate use of extrinsic motivation in particular.  Carollo experiments with methods from “Relationship Development Intervention,” that focus on using the child's strengths and interests to make progress in objectives.  Key to her approach is cultivating methods for student emotional expression.  

Intended Audience:

Practicing Educators

Relevance:

Yet another article in favor of student voice as crucial to valuable instruction.  I am eager to continue learning from my Spec. Ed. compatriots about the challenges they face from d

ata collection / other pressures that prevent this style of instruction and ways to make progress.

Pearson's Bizarre take on "Efficacy in Education"

Efficacy: The True Measure of Success in Education

EdSurge, Sabrina Manville (Director of Efficacy in the Office of the Chief Education Advisor at Pearson Education) March 24,2015

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-03-24-efficacy-the-true-measure-of-success-in-education

Key Points:

• What is most striking is the surprising definitions for “efficacy,” “measure,” “success,” and “Education”

• Given the title, I anticipated:
• An article that would discuss a “soft focus” on how Pearson believes it is important to focus on student’s retention, application and implementation of what they learn in school. [which just so happens to be made possible by Pearson Products ;)  ]
• BUT the article instead defines efficacy as a measure of Pearson's market penetration. Success as revenue growth, Measure as profitability, and Education as a market.  The author initially refutes these foci, but ironically focuses on them for the duration of the article. The strategy rang particularly loud in my ears having spent the last few years as a sales rep for an auto parts company with a “solution” for every aspect of auto repair.  

• A telling quotation “Tests and textbooks are just a small slice of the money spent on education globally; money spent on teaching, learning, and related services are a much larger and growing share.”

Intended Audience:

• The Author is addressing people working in the “Business of Education,” this should be differentiated from people who educate.  The source, Edsurge, portrays itself as an independent source for Ed-Tech news and is intended for educators.

Relevance:

• To be blunt, I have read similar trade articles announcing new automobile brake pads, ---“eco-friendly composition,” ---“protect your family,”---- this is a piece on value-added sales.  It is not evidence that all corporate interests are evil, just that their interest in schooling is much different than committed educators.  
• Given the bizarrely mismatched definitions of “Efficacy, Success, and Education,” it should be a red flag on the appropriateness of Corporate expansion into their target market of “teaching, learning, and related services…”

The use of E-cigarettes among middle school and high school students

I found this article on ED Week's national blog, interesting and a little frightening. It states that in the last year studies have shown that the usage of E-cigarettes have tripled. 13.4 percent of high school respondents to the National Youth Tobacco Survey reported using e-cigarettes on at least one day in the past 30 days, compared to 4.5 percent in 2013. "As Education Week reported last year, the increasing use of e-cigarettes by young people has spurred many districts to change their policies, in part because they aren't as regulated as other products". I knew that they were popular but I had no idea how far the E-cigarette would become in our society especially in such a young age group. This last quote, as a teacher helps me realize the importance of health in education. "We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it's an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement Thursday. "Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use." The intended audience: is parents, teachers, schools.

Published By Evie Blad on April 16, 2015 3:41 PM

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/2015/04/e-cigarette_use_by_middle_high_school_students_tripled_last_year.html?cmp=SOC-EDIT-GOO&utm_content=bufferb0612&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

2020 Federal Youth Transition Plan: A Federal Interagency Strategy

Key Points: I found this plan on the CEC Website. It is a plan to connect federal government agencies to work together to provide the best full coverage support for youth with disabilities to transition them into adulthood. (Agencies: Department of Labor- Office of Disability Employment, Department of Education - Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration). Below are the goals of this plan:
        1) Access health care services and integrated work-based experiences in high school
        2) Develop self-determination and engage in self-directed individualized    planning
        3) Be connected to programs, services, activities, information, and supports
        4) Develop leadership and advocacy skills
        5) Have involvement from families and other caring adults with high expectations
Intended Audience: Parents with Children who have disabilities, School Districts (Specifically Transition Services), Teachers, Agencies noted above, Lawmakers

Published: February 2015

URL: http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/docs/508_EDITED_RC_FEB26-accessible.pdf

They Deserve Good Teaching, Too

Social justice in a classroom for students with autism

 LEANNA CAROLLO         Rethinking Schools        Spring 2015

link

      In this article,the author describes her efforts to apply some new ideas to her work with autistic students. She describes two different approaches to working with these students. It encapsulates the results of her own mini inquiry study and discuss which method she prefers and why.

    The article is aimed a teachers and parents.

Common Core & Special Ed.

Great video I found yesterday. Talks specifically about common core in special education and what that might look like.

Online Coursetaking Evolving Into Viable Option for Special Ed.

Key Point: The article reviews the beginnings of online education for students with special needs. Most of the case studies were with school districts in the southeastern United States. The benefits of the online education is the collaborative work between a classroom teacher and an online teacher that work together. The classroom teacher would give feedback through a google doc to describe the process the student goes through including their behavior. The online teacher then reviews the information and creates assignments that would best support the student. The online program can support these students through repetition, speech therapy, visual supports, etc. Specialist are also on hand to help these students succeed. The concern is whether or not the purposed individualized education plans actually happen, or will they be they same struggles we face in the face to face classrooms today.

Intended Audience: Educators, Special Educators, Parents of Special Needs Children

Published: Education Week on April 1st, 2015

URL: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/04/01/online-course-taking-evolving-into-viable-option-for.html

Vanessa's Journey: Empowering Special Education Through Technology

Vanessa's Journey: Empowering Special Education Through Technology
Published April 13th, 2015
Written by:  Karla Philips
On Huffington Post
Link


This article focuses on one mother's journey to helping her daughter with special needs succeed at school. She started out with just buying an Ipad for herself and downloading a toddler game to distract her daughter but was surprised that her daughter thrived with the new technology. From the article: What I have discovered is that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of technology's ability to help us increase academic achievement for children with special needs. Her daughter is currently in a very traditional school setting and Karla is urging for more school to utilize the power of technology based on the results she has seen in her own daughter. When doctors told her to "not expect much" she fought that diagnosis and is now watching her daughter thrive with the use of age appropriate learning apps.

Audience: educators, parents, school boards, and district leaders.

Charter School in Harlem

This was an interesting read... I'm still not sure what to think of it. However, I do like the success that they are seeing in test scores. In this article At Success Academy Charter Schools, High Scores and Polarizing Tactics, students are pushed to their limits for the sake of success. This article was written by Kate Taylor on April 6, 2015. Some key points that was was determined to provide success was structure and expectations of students, reinforcements was also mentioned. The intended audience was anyone looking for charter schools, education article and teachers. I feel that this article does have lots of relevant ideas. Yet, it does seem that some may be a bit extreme for my personal teaching style.

Special Education Teacher Evaluation Methods A Struggle

Huffington Post

Christine Amario/April 4, 2012

Article link here

Key Points:

How states are going to evaluate Special Education teachers is a big question.  Is it fair to evaluate on student growth measured against neurotypical students?  Teachers of students with profound disabilities are concerned about this since sometimes it is the little things that illustrate the growth of these students and these things can't or won't be found on any standardized test. Many states are trying to develop evaluations based on criteria such as socio-economic backgrounds, English language skills, etc.  

Intended Audience: Teachers, Administrators

Relevance: As future teachers, especially SpEd teachers, I find standardized "evaluations" a little scary.  It is not okay to compare the growth of Special Education Students to neurotypical students and then evaluate that teacher based on the outcomes.  Hopefully as states develop "evaluations" situations like these will be taken into account.

Homework vs. No Homework Is the Wrong Question

Homework vs. No Homework Is the Wrong Question
Found on Edutopia.org, here:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/homework-vs-no-homework-wrong-question-maurice-elias

Published March 19th, 2015
Written by Maurice Elias

This blog post tackles the long debated question, "should students be given homework?" Directly from the article: "The real question we should be asking is, 'What do we believe should happen after the end of the school day to help ensure that students retain what they have learned and are primed to learn more?'"

The approach is not to attempt to answer this question but instead reiterate the purpose that homework shouldn't imply "work" and that students should be encouraged to be learners, even outside of the classroom. Elias describes how home activities like reading should be encouraged and that students should be learning at home to "better understand the world around them in terms of civics, science, and the arts." This kind of learning can be enhanced with the encouragement and stance being taken from the school to support good parenting models in the home. The goal of this article is to show how homework doesn't necessarily need to be just that "home-work" but can be an extension of the learning process that takes place outside of school.

The audience targeted in this blog post is parents and educators as means to achieve a sense of cooperation between the two to enhance student learning.

7 Tips to Make Running Records Manageable and Useful

Author: Bridget Stegman

March 2, 2015
Edutopia

Link Here

  This article is a basic introduction for doing running records with students during reading instruction. I really struggled with trying to fit these in at the beginning of the year while I was also trying to teach my group. The article gives some tips for how to schedule running records, track progress, analyze data, check student comprehension and set goals. 

  This is something that both gen ed and sped teachers deal with because at some point we have to collect data on our students reading ability and track progress.

Gender Bias in Special Education

This article is from the AAUW, American Association of University Women, Breaking Barriers for Women and Girls, Educating Girls withDisabilities.

Seventy percent of special ed diagnosis goes to boys. Why? There are three theories presented here, including biological difference between boys and girls, behavioral differences between boys and girls, and bias in special education referral and assessment procedures. What they do know is that boys are more likely than girls to exhibit problematic behavior characteristics, and that girls are often 

diagnosed only after they exhibit behavior typical of males students who have been diagnosed.

It makes you wonder how much we don't know about how a girl with learning disabilities acts. Does she just dream her way through class and quietly underachieve because of an attention disorder? How many girls are we missing who we could be helping?

What is the impact of under diagnosis of girls with learning disabilities? According to the article, they include high rates of academic failure, teen pregnancy, and unemployment. If we can help these girls we need to do better.

Study Finds Postsecondary Programs Boost Outcomes

I am excited to see that more states are offering postsecondary services and are seeing positive results.  The article in Disability Scoop is vague and lacks in describing what is meant by Postsecondary programs as well as how it is funded which has encouraged uninformed people to make judgements.


http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/01/20/study-postsecondary-outcomes/19972/

Lawmakers Look to Rein In Alternative Diplomas

Lawmakers Look to Reign In Alternative Diplomas
Michelle Diament
February 18, 2015
Url: http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/02/18/lawmakers-alternative-diplomas/20072/
Audience: Educators, parents and general citizens

The United States Congress is looking at (2/18/15) clearly defining what the guidelines are for students who can or cannot qualify for Alternative Diplomas. The policy is being co-spearheaded by Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington State. Senator Bob Casey said that the alternative

New Look at Suspension Data Pinpoints Disparities

Title: New Look at Suspension Data Pinpoints Disparities
Author: Evie Blad and Christina A. Samuels
March 3, 2015
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/03/04/new-look-at-suspension-data-pinpoints-disparities.html

The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California conducted a study to explore suspension rates among different populations of students. The study found huge disparities, with much higher suspension/discipline rates among students with disabilities as well as minorities. Daniel J. Loson, the director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies says that the data "further support previous research that shows it's often the attitude of educational leaders, not the behavior of students, that predicts high suspension rates" (Blad & Samuels). The report also found that discipline rates were even higher among students who belong to multiple protected classes, such as a black student with a disability. Another shocking statistic in the article: "The 5,700-student Riverview Gardens, Mo., district was cited in the report for suspending 85 percent of its secondary students with disabilities in 2011-12, compared with 49 percent of its secondary students overall" (Blad & Samuels). This report is relevant because there has been a serious push questioning the over use of suspension. Many people believe it is counter-productive and there are other options that will keep students in school. Also, the unbelievable gaps between suspension or discipline rates among minorities and people with disabilities vs. non-minority students with no disabilities is alarming. This will create a severe learning gap if certain people are not at school learning as much as other students, etc. and this is a subject that definitely needs to be addressed. 

Writing IEP goals

This is a quick and easy article written by Dr. Ruth Heitin that I found that talks about how to write effective IEP goals for your students. This article was written based on research-based practice, and gives offers an easy to remember strategy (acronym SMART) to write effective IEP goals.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/writing-iep-goals

Trouble Focusing

Title: "Trouble Focusing? New Checklist Can Help Parents Make Evaluations" Author: Rebecca Jackson 1.8.2015 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-jackson/focus-checklist_b_6430274.html I read the article "Trouble Focusing? New Checklist Can Help Parents Make Evaluations", which talked about focusing more on creating habits instead of resolutions. The author's intended audience is parents, especially of children that have extra difficulty focusing in the classroom or to do homework. Many parents get frustrated, and the author was noticing this common theme of questions from parents emailing in. Instead of focusing on the end result all the time, Jackson explains that it is better to focus on changing habits, specifically teaching "concentrated focus", a core idea from the book The Learning Habit, based on research from Brown University School of Medicine. Jackson touches on how important it is to introduce something in the right way to children with focusing difficulties. Children like games and generally respond better when you introduce something as a game instead of just saying "we're going to sit down and focus now". The article has a checklist that parents can use to evaluate their child's progress focusing, because sometimes it can be difficult to see the progress at first. It's called the Pressman Focus Checklist, and contains 11 questions to help parents with their evaluations. I think this article is relevant to any parents that are feeling frustrated constantly trying to focus their child who struggles with it. It's important to provide parents with resources like this so that students that may be having a little extra difficulties, or maybe have a learning disability, are not falling behind and are getting that extra bit of help they need.

Game Based Learning

A MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME (MMOG) WITH SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) TOPICS FOR MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM.

https://www.radixendeavor.org/ from the MIT Education Arcade, a research group at MIT.

I just signed up for this research project/game-based learning opportunity. Its a game that teaches math and biology concepts for middle and high school. They teach through exploration which supports the strength of the subjects being taught rather than drilling facts for points which is a more common style of game-based learning. The research and game are from MIT. Teacher registration has to be accepted but I have mine now. I am anxious to see what it has to offer.
I don't think this is a targeted audience, but I am curious if this type of game would be good for kids with ADHD since they can often focus pretty well in in rich multimedia environments like computer games.

Training Educators for Virtual Special Education

Training Educators for Virtual Special Education
Michelle R. Davis
Education Week
Link to Article Here

This article explains the basic idea of how an online special ed class is taught.  It explains how Connections Academy runs its online classes. Each teacher gets 15 minutes to an hour of professional development a week during their regular work day to keep up on assistive technology and other supplementary instructional programs. There is a concern about students who have social goals because the teacher isn't meeting face to face with students so they can't really work on them. This also affects the type of IEP goals that can be written. The teachers do get in person training on some of the technology that will be used for their class and they are also allowed access to a website with other resources to help them out.

This article would be relevant to someone who is considering teaching an online class. I can see how it may be a good structure for some students, however, I don't think it is very appropriate for special ed students.

High School Math Curriculum

In this video, Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover, the author brings to light a flaw in the current math curriculum. While a little old, March 2010, this author suggests that math teachers need to allow students the ability to actually think when working through math problems. This video seems to be for anyone who is willing to think about the ways math curriculum could be changed. Even though this video is a little old, I feel that the authors points are still valuable. Lastly, here is the link!

A Research-Based Case for Recess

A Research-Based Case for Recess
By Olga S. Jarrett
US Play Coalition
Link Here

  This article talks about how important it is for students to get to go to recess everyday because it is often the only time that students are allowed to play in an unstructured environment. It also said that students are learning important skills at recess like  social skills, sharing, and decision making. When students are allowed to make up their own games during recess they learn respect for the rules, self discipline, control of aggression, problem solving and planning strategies.
  It was difficult for the researcher to compare data because there were so many variables between schools such as socioeconomic status and race. In some studies there were schools that had children performing better on literacy tasks after they have had recess and children tend to raise their hands more often after recess.
  This is important for educators to keep in mind because sometimes taking away recess is used as a form of punishment for a range of misbehaviors from talking too much in class to not finishing their work during class time.

Flipped classroom: Southridge High students learn lessons at home, do homework in class

Flipped classroom: Southridge High students learn lessons at home, do homework in class
Published in The Oregonian on March 25th, 2015
By Wendy Owen
http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2015/03/flipped_classroom_southridge_h.html#incart_river

Latino children's language skills are lagging by age 2, study says

By Emma Brown 

Washington Post link here  

Publish on April 2nd, 2015

This article follows a recent study by the University of California at Berkley that shows how prekindergarten could be too late of a start when thinking about closing the gap between Latino and white students academically. The research is directed at parents and educators and calls for more efforts to be done when preparing toddlers for schooling. The researchers visited the children's homes twice: once at nine months old and again in toddler hood. The findings were that 80% of Mexican-American toddlers grew more slowly than white toddlers and averaged about 3-4 months behind their white peers.