United States: Smaller Class Sizes Not Proven but Teachers Strike for Them

North America/ United States/ 23.01.2019/ Source: www.usnews.com.

Most educators and parents see class size as an indicator of a quality education and have made it a priority in teacher strikes across the United States, but its effectiveness is still up for debate.

Most educators and parents see class size as an indicator of a quality education and have made it a priority in teacher strikes across the United States in the past year, but its effectiveness is still up for debate.

There’s no universal standard for the best class size, though some states and school districts have instituted policies, particularly in lower grades. While many believe smaller is better, studies are mixed on exactly how much it can improve academic outcomes, considering the cost.

The ratio of students to teachers is at the heart of a teacher strike in the nation’s second-largest school district, where tens of thousands of Los Angeles educators walked out Monday. Teachers have complained about having kids sitting on window sills or the floor of overcrowded classrooms that can push past 45 students.

Farther north, some teachers in Oakland called in sick Friday as part of an unofficial rally over their contract negotiations, which also hinge partly on a demand for smaller class sizes.

At the high school level, Los Angeles has routinely had more students per teacher than the national average, said John Rogers, a professor of education at University of California, Los Angeles.

He said there’s no easy way to assess the impact of class size on educational outcomes over the last couple of decades in the Los Angeles Unified School District — in part because classes have been overcrowded despite a state mandate calling for an average class size of 30 students through eighth grade.

Rogers said the question of whether districts should be able to increase class size unilaterally is important because it makes teachers feel they lack control over learning conditions.

«When your class size can be increased dramatically, you lose the ability to ensure that you can do right by the students you are serving,» Rogers said.

United Teachers Los Angeles is demanding the elimination of a longstanding contract clause giving the district authority over class sizes. If the district won’t agree to remove the provision, union leaders say they can’t trust that school officials won’t ignore any deal it cuts on class sizes in the future.

The district has insisted on replacing it with new language that also grants it power to raise class sizes under certain conditions, including a financial emergency. It said its latest contract offer included $100 million to add nearly 1,000 additional teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians in 2019-20 and reduce some class sizes. Schools with the greatest needs would see larger reductions — about four students per class.

But union president Alex Caputo-Pearl said the district’s offers were limited to one year and then class sizes could spike again and new staff could be cut. He has called class size a «fundamental issue» that’s directly «about educator working conditions.»

Superintendent Austin Beutner has said he would like to reduce class sizes even more but the district simply doesn’t have the money. He has suggested the union might consider trading other contract demands for greater reductions in class size.

Brent Smiley, a 23-year district veteran who teaches at Sherman Oaks Center For Enriched Studies, said he’s had as many as 42 students in one class and that his smallest has 39.

«Struggling to keep them focused can be an impossible task,» he said this week.

A 2016 report by the National Education Policy Center suggested class sizes be set as low as 15 students in lower grades and found that all things being equal, the student ratio affected their academic achievement.

William Mathis, who authored the study as an education policy expert at the University of Colorado, pointed to a 1979 study that tracked young students in smaller classes in Tennesseeand saw lasting effects. The children had better grades and test scores, fewer disciplinary issues and an increased likelihood of going to college.

The gains were twice as large for poor and minority students and so convincing that in 1998 President Bill Clinton pushed a $12 billion class size reduction program through Congress, though academic disparities remain.

Mathis contends that smaller class sizes in younger grades work because teacher quality improves and getting more attention helps children develop skills, such as establishing peer groups and positive attitudes, that are needed to progress to more intense learning.

«The bigger the class, the more likely you are to treat kids as a big group, and you don’t read papers as good, you don’t read them as closely, you don’t have as much attention to give to each child,» Mathis said of teacher quality.

But Matthew Chingos, vice president of the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy, is skeptical of a one-size-fits-all approach. He’s studied state-regulated class sizes and says that it may not be the «biggest bang for the buck» for every classroom.

Requiring a school to have more teachers is expensive and potentially problematic, he argues, because it limits local control at the campus level, which in turn can dilute teacher quality.

California tried to boost its reading and math scores between 1996 and 2013 with a program that gave extra money to schools if they reduced kindergarten through third-grade classes down to 20 students.

That experiment, Chingos said, didn’t prove its worth because there was no prior data for comparison.

Without more high-quality research, Chingos said parents and teachers both push for smaller class sizes based largely on their intuition that it’s better for children. Teachers also benefit, including adding to the union ranks, he said.

«Class sizes are a political winner. No one thinks it’s bad. If money grew on trees, then sure,» Chingos said.

 

Source of the notice: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-01-20/smaller-class-sizes-not-proven-but-teachers-strike-for-them

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Brazil’s FazGame Is Using Serious Games to Reach At-Risk Students

By Cait Etherington

Not unlike the United States, Brazil is a country of great contrast. While a majority of the nation’s children and youth have access to education, in some of Brazil’s poorest neighborhoods, dropout rates remain high. FazGame, a Brazilian-based edtech company has discovered that serious games may be one way to increase engagement and decrease the dropout rate in the nation’s most at-risk school districts. eLearning Inside News recently talked to Carla Seltzer, the founder of FazGame, about her company’s educational solution and about the edtech startup scene in Brazil.

The Founding of FazGame

Cait Etherington: What motivated you to start FazGame? Also, did you have a background working for other edtech companies?

Carla Seltzer: I worked for another startup, and we developed off-line and online methodologies for entrepreneurship education for kids, based on practical activities to develop skills such as communication, collaboration, and creativity. We were working on two projects at the same time: a point-and-click entrepreneurship education game and an eLearning for teachers. The eLearning tool had a very simple interface where authors could create their content. The first part of the game was validated–the learning process, student engagement, and impact on their motivation to learn. We needed additional funding to develop the other part of this project. Then, I had the idea of FazGame–to develop a platform where anyone could create point-and-click games with educational content to help spread the use of games in schools.

FazGame’s Interventions in At-Risk School Districts

CE: Brazil still has quite a high drop out rate. Would you agree that “serious games” or educational video games are especially useful when working with students who are at risk of dropping out? Why is this?

CZ: The biggest project we have run here in Brazil is in a Rio de Janeiro municipality in public schools in high-risk areas. These schools generally have students with lower grades and higher dropout rates, but if these students receive additional and engaging activities, they are more inclined to stay at school and succeed. Games motivate students because they are an interactive activity, where they can be proactive and make decisions. FazGame also uses language that students are used to and that they enjoy–game language. When we include the creation component–with FazGame, students learn while they create their games we empower these students. Generally, in the beginning, students think they are not able to create a game. Then, they start using the platform and discussing the project with their groups, and they even don’t notice when the class time is finished as they are so engaged in the creation process. We have an example of a group of 12-14 years old students from a public school from Rio Grande do Sul that created a fiscal education game . The result was so positive that they were invited to present their concept to the biggest congress on game science hosted in Brazil.

CE: So, how do you respond to critics–those people who continue to dismiss the potential impact of educational games? Beyond the above anecdote, what evidence have you found of their impact since launching FazGame?

CZ: In Brazil, I think this vision of games as just “playing” is being demystified. This is mainly because parents are increasingly noticing how engaged their kids are by games and how much games do teach them. We need to continue to work on teachers’ and parents’ worries, especially concerns about how much time kids spend online and whether the games they like to play are educational. Measuring the results and impact of games certainly helps to respond to critics. At FazGame, we measure technically the development of skills such as collaboration, creativity, logical reasoning, and problem solving that are all critical 21th-century skills. FazGame is a tool for schools that want to change the ways students learn in the class–it turns learning into a proactive event. We also measure impact on a qualitative level by assessing the interest levels of the students and any notable changes in students’ grades. Our research shows that for 100% of students, learning with games makes the class more fun and more interesting. We also found 100% attendance on days when FazGame was being used in classes.

Future Plans and the EdTech Startup Scene in Brazil

CE: Is there an edtech startup scene in Brazil? Also, what’s next for FazGame?

CZ: We have a few programs, incubators or accelerators), in Brazil that are focused on EdTech. We’re also working toward future change as big educational groups are starting to create a relationship with EdTechs startups here. I have taken part in a Social Entrepreneurship Acceleration and a Government Acceleration Program here in Brazil and a Global Impact Acceleration Program in Finland (Slush GIA). Our growth plans include explanding our sales to public schools in Brazil. We already have 100.000 schools in Brazil and more than 85% of the market is of public schools. We are also negotiating with educational groups to sell FazGame integrated with their learning systems in order to grow in the private school market. We plan to invest in a sales team to sell directly to schools here, and we also have a roadmap for FazGame development, which includes mobile portability, new game creation features, development of lesson plans integrated into different curriculum content, and development of artificial intellingence engines to measure and guide students’ learning process. FazGame is translated into Spanish and English, and we also want to launch it in U.S. market soon. Our first initiative is the integration with the platform Desk from TeacherGaming, which is where teachers and students from U.S. schools can access FazGame. We are also planning to develop curriculum content for U.S. schools, with some specific focus areas, such as Spanish. It’s also in our plan to take part in an U.S.-based Acceleration Program to implement our internationalization strategy over the next few years.

Source of the review: https://news.elearninginside.com/brazils-fazgame-is-using-serious-games-to-reach-at-risk-students/
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Estados Unidos: Poneer pride, Stillwater Public Schools provides many resources to those with learning difficulties Melisa Kifer 11 hrs ago

United States, February 24, 2018 /Author: Melisa Kifer/stwnewspress

Resumen: La ley federal conocida como la Ley de Educación para Individuos con Discapacidades (IDEA, por sus siglas en inglés) brinda a los estudiantes con discapacidades el derecho a ser evaluados y recibir un Plan de Educación Individual (IEP) diseñado para satisfacer sus necesidades únicas. Actualmente, más de 800 estudiantes de Stillwater Public School de 3 a 21 años reciben educación especial y servicios relacionados.

The federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides students with disabilities the right to be evaluated and receive an Individual Education Plan (IEP) designed to meet their unique needs. Currently, more than 800 Stillwater Public School students ages 3 through 21 receive special education and related services. 

Students unable to achieve academic success, even with interventions and remediation, are provided a free comprehensive educational evaluation by the school district. The eligibility team reviews the evaluation results, along with other available data to determine if the student meets criteria for one of the IDEA defined disabilities. This team is also responsible for developing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for students who qualify for special education and related services. 

Each district must have a “Child Find” component to discover any students ages 3-21 that are living in district that need services. If infants and toddlers under three years of age are experiencing developmental delays in one or more of the following areas: cognitive, physical, communication, social or emotional, adaptive, or have a diagnosed physical or mental condition, they are evaluated and the team determines if an IEP for district provided services is needed. 

There are 13 disability categories defined under IDEA. Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is maintained under each category so that educational progress is made in the least restrictive environment. The disability categories are Autism, Deaf-Blindness, Developmental Delay, Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Visual Impairment.

Special Services also oversees more than 200 students who are found eligible for accommodations and services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These are students who do not qualify for special education services, but need accommodations or services temporarily or long term in order to have full access to school. 

When special education was federally mandated in public schools, it was implemented with the intent for funding to be fully provided by state and federal sources. Local expenditures for the 2017 fiscal year exceeded 5 million dollars with less than 30 percent coming from federal and state sources.

 The annual special services report was presented at the Jan. 16 board meeting. The full report is available on the SPS website. Please contact the office of Special Services at 405-533-6300 if we can serve you in any way.

Fuente: http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/pioneer-pride-stillwater-public-schools-provides-many-resources-to-those/article_b5355246-16a4-11e8-8d01-cfa9a5fd70b9.html

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Estados Unidos: A law banning Mexican-American studies in Arizona public schools is dead

Arizona / 31 de diciembre de 2017 / Por: Carma Hassan / Fuente: http://edition.cnn.com/

An Arizona law banning Mexican-American studies from schools has been quashed.

A federal court says the measure, which took aim at programs such as Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program Arizona that state lawmakers said were «designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,» violates students’ constitutional rights.
Richard Martinez, the attorney who represents a group of Mexican-American students who attended the Tucson Unified School District, said the students sued shortly after the law was passed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
«This was their curriculum that was intended to be responsive to them…culturally, linguistically, educationally,» Martinez said. «The program had a very strong effect on students’ achievement… in fact, most of the students finished high school and matriculated to college, which was unprecedented at Tucson Unified School District.»
Most of the students are now in college, with two students currently enrolled in high school in the Tucson Unified School District.

Closing the gap

According to court documents, the program was established in 1998 and included courses like art, government, literature, and history focusing on «historic and contemporary Mexican-American contributions.» It was meant to help Mexican-American students engage and relate to their studies and to «close the historic gap in academic achievement between Mexican-American and white students in Tucson.»
The MAS program was a success, U.S. District Court Judge Wallace Tashima noted, writing that «one would expect that officials responsible for public education in Arizona would continue, not terminate, an academically successful program.»
However, the program drew negative attention from Arizona Department of Education officials. Tom Horne, the former superintendent of public instruction, said the program was «‘extremely anti-American» because it promotes «essentially revolution against the American government.»
According to court documents, Horne never attended a class from the program to see what was being taught there and yet recommended the program be canceled. When the Tucson Unified School District didn’t accept his recommendation, Horne «began lobbying for statewide legislation that would ban the program.» His third draft of a bill prohibiting ethnic courses passed the House.

‘This is America, speak English’

That was when John Huppenthal, a Senator who was chairman of the Senate Education Accountability and Reform Committee, became a proponent of the bill. It passed the Legislature in 2010 and both officials used the bill «to make political gains,» Judge Tashima said, using the issue as «a political boon,» that the men referenced in their political campaigns.
The court also found that Huppenthal posted discriminatory comments on a blog a few months after the bill passed. Huppenthal, who wrote under two pseudonyms, said things like, «I don’t mind them selling Mexican food as long as the menus are mostly in English.» He also wrote that embracing Mexico’s values is «the rejection of success and embracement of failure,» and opposed Spanish-language media saying, «This is America, speak English.» He also wrote a blog comment comparing the Mexican-American Studies classes to the «KKK in a different color,» called the teachers skinheads and said they «use the exact same technique that Hitler used in his rise to power.»
These blog comments, the judge said, were «the most important and direct evidence that racial animus infected the decision to enact» the bill.
Tashima ultimately concluded that the bill «was enacted and enforced with a discriminatory purpose» since «students have a First Amendment right to receive information and ideas» and said current Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas and Horne and Huppenthal «acted contrary to the First and Fourteenth Amendments,» «violated students’ constitutional rights,» and said the bill «was not enacted in a legitimate educational purpose.»
The defendants have 30 days to appeal and «the clock is ticking,» said Martinez.
«Everyone is very pleased to bring this eight-year challenge to closure in such a positive way. Now public school students in Arizona will be allowed to take classes that teach their history and literature, to hear their own stories and know that they, too, are part of the rich American fabric,» Martinez said.
CNN has requested comment from the Arizona Department of Education as well as the state’s attorney general. Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo did not have a comment, his spokeswoman said. The District and staff are on winter break.
Fuente noticia: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/29/us/az-education-law-overturned-trnd/index.html
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