FEBRUARY 2003 MIDDLE GRADES NEWSLETTER
1. Schools in the Middle
2. "Harry Who?"
3. Backpack Dangers
4. Helping Children Through Adolescence
5. Close Teacher Gap to Close Student Performance Gap
6. Retaining the Best Teachers
7. “Profoundly Multicultural Questions”
8. Equity and Opportunity Web sites
9. Teacher’s Guide to Black History Month
10. Decisions Districts Must Make About Reform
11. After School Education Pays Off
12. Student Mobility and Achievement
13. Feds Initiate Office of Innovation and Improvement
14. Providing Data for Your Board”
15. Juvenile Bipolar Disorder
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1. SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE
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“Middle level schools are often left out of the national education
conversation. High schools and elementary schools often seem to get
all the attention.” Authors Gerald Tirozzi and Vincent Ferrandino
of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
address the importance of committed middle level educators to the
educational development of young adolescents in the “Principals
Perspective” (NASSP Online, October 2002). The article provides an
overview of the findings presented in “The National Study of
Leadership in Middle Level Schools.”
http://www.principals.org/publicaffairs/views/school_middle.htm
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2. "HARRY WHO?"
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Brenda Dixey and Andrea D’Angelo investigate the reading habits of
students in grades 5-8 using the Harry Potter books (Special Issue,
Research in Middle Level Education, April 2002). Recognizing that
the Harry Potter series is extremely controversial among educators -
“praised by some and banned by others“ – yet widely read by students,
the authors looked for the types of books students enjoyed reading
and why; and how teachers could assist students in reading more
frequently. Findings showed that students top three reading material
preferences were adventures, mysteries and fantasies – all materials
that engaged the readers to actively think about what they read.
They conclude that “at the middle school level, reading instruction
is very limited at best,” thus, “teachers must strive to create . . .
a ‘literate environment’ and build positive attitudes and perceptions
about reading.”
http://www.nmsa.org/research/rmle/rmle/article2_april2002.html
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3. BACKPACK DANGERS
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Tripping over a backpack accounted for 28 percent of the backpack
injuries sending children to hospital emergency rooms, while wearing
one or being hit with one accounted for about 13 percent of the
injuries (USA Today, January 6, 2003). Researcher Eric Wall, a
pediatric orthopedic surgeon, studied backpack-related injuries, and
found that the use of the backpack was not as dangerous as previously
thought.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-01-06-backpacks_x.htm
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4. HELPING CHILDREN THROUGH ADOLESCENCE
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The U. S. Department of Education has provided an online guide for
parents of children ages 10-14 entitled “Helping Your Child Through
Early Adolescence.” Issues addressed include physical and emotional
changes in adolescents; helping children with reading and homework;
effectively communicating with adolescents; monitoring friendships
and helping overcome peer pressure; motivating children to learn both
in and out of school; and helping children establish positive and
productive value systems.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/adolescence/index.html
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5. CLOSE TEACHER GAP TO CLOSE STUDENT PERFORMANCE GAP
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“If I Can’t Learn From You… Ensuring Highly Qualified Teachers for
Every Classroom” is the 2003 annual “Quality Counts” research report
from EdWeek. Among the findings of the report is the fact that
schools that serve high minority and high poverty students have the
greatest gap in student performance as well as the highest numbers
of non-credentialed teachers, inexperienced teachers, or teachers who
are teaching outside of a major or minor area of preparation. The
reports notes that many districts are increasing the numbers of
credentialed teachers overall; however they are not focusing their
efforts on recruiting teachers for the schools with the lowest
student performance.
http://www.edweek.org/sreports/qc03/
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6. RETAINING THE BEST TEACHERS
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While many teachers enter teaching each year, many new teachers
leave the profession within five years. The Alliance for Excellent
Education report, “New Teacher Excellence, Retaining Our Best”
highlights strategies to support and retain exceptional new teachers.
http://www.all4ed.org/policymakers/NewTeacherExcellence/NTE.pdf
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7. “PROFOUNDLY MULTICULTURAL QUESTIONS”
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Questioning which students take upper level courses in high school,
the money spent on the education and the space provided for learning
of different student groups, author Sonia M. Nieto writes about
“Profoundly Multicultural Questions” (Education Leadership, December
2002-January 2003). Nieto states, “We must address the deeply
ingrained inequities of today's schools by asking difficult questions
related to equity and access.”
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0212/nieto.html
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8. EQUITY AND OPPORTUNITY WEB SITES
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“Web Wonders/ Equity and Opportunity” (Educational Leadership,
December 2002-January 2003), written by Christy Thorp, lists a
number of national organizations and agencies that have resources
on issues of equity and opportunity for students.
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0212/thorp.html
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9. TEACHER’S GUIDE TO BLACK HISTORY MONTH
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Teachersplanet.com, in association with History Channel.com,
presents a list of resources compiled to help students celebrate
Black History Month. Links include lesson plans, general resources,
articles and related documents, activities for students, and selected
biographies of famous African Americans.
http://teachersplanet.com/subjects/bhm.shtml
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10. DECISIONS DISTRICTS MUST MAKE ABOUT REFORM
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“While many districts share the goal of helping all students achieve
at high levels, few qualify as high-performance systems.” Tom Vander
Ark, Executive Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
outlines the strategic choices that district leaders must face as
they attempt to steer their systems toward success in the article
“Toward Success At Scale” (Phi Delta Kappan Online Article, December
2002).
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0212va1.htm
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11. AFTER SCHOOL EDUCATION PAYS OFF
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“After School Education: A New Ally In School Reform,” (Gil C. Noam,
Harvard Educational Letter: Research Online, November/December 2002)
is heralded as a “reimagining of the school day for the first time in
decades.” With careful planning, after school programs can be powerful
tools to support school reform efforts. Noam reports that there is
strong support in the community for supporting after school programs
in the “risky time” between three and five in the afternoon as well as
evidence that student performance improves when attending focused
after school classes.
http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2002-nd/afterschool.shtml
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12. STUDENT MOBILITY AND ACHIEVEMENT
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Author Russell W. Rumberger looks at the correlation between academic
achievement and student mobility in his June 2002 article published
in the ERIC/EECE Publications Digest. Rumberger reminds the reader
that residence changes are not the sole cause of student mobility. Also
contributing to mobility are policies related to suspensions and
expulsions, overcrowding, class size reduction, and increased
parental options offered by the No Child Left Behind legislation.
Unfortunately, although some reasons for school changes are well-
intentioned, research shows that “ . . . school mobility between the
first and eighth grades increased the odds of dropping out of school
during high school even after controlling for eighth-grade
achievement.”
http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/2002/rumberger02.html
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13. FEDS INITIATE OFFICE OF INNOVATION AND IMPROVEMENT
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The U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and
Improvement Web site provides information about educational
innovations and grant opportunities available through the federal
government.
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OII/
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14. “PROVIDING DATA FOR YOUR BOARD”
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Helping school boards understand student performance data is not
always easy. Even more importantly, helping boards learn to
make policy decisions based upon the results of the data is a
critical task. In the article “Providing Data for Your Board”
(School Administrator Web Edition, December 2002), Linda J. Dawson
suggests four guiding principles for how data should be presented
to boards.
http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2002_12/LaFee_Dawson.htm
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15. JUVENILE BIPOLAR DISORDER
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Steven Schlozman, writing on “The Shrink in the Classroom: An
Explosive Debate: The Bipolar Child” (Educational Leadership,
November 2002) notes that until recently, this disorder was not
widely recognized in the medical community. Now, more physicians are
diagnosing and treating students with this disorder. Schlozman
offers information on the treatments that children are receiving and
the impact of children with bipolar disorder in a classroom.
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0211/schlozman.html
This electronic newsletter is sponsored by the Region 8 California Professional Development Consortium (CPDC) administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, or to subscribe to our other our free electronic Newsletters for High School or Professional Development issues, email, call or fax Christina Doyle: email - cdoyle@kern.org, phone (661) 636-4331 or fax (661) 636-4135.
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