Education Week - September 24, 2014 - 10

BLOGS www.edweek.org/go/blogs
N.Y.C. Education Leaders Pledge
Special Attention to English-Learners
| LEARNING THE LANGUAGE | New York City's public schools enroll
nearly 160,000 English-language learners-about 14.5 percent of all
students in the city schools and a population that dwarfs most U.S.
districts.
The city has struggled to move its English-learners to higher levels
engage in professional
learning that deepens and
strengthens your practice
2-Day INSTITUTES
Building Teachers' capaciTy for success: a collaBoraTive approach for
coaches and school leaders
Nov. 13-14, 2014 Memphis, TN
Dec. 1-2, 2014 Long Beach, CA
Dec. 4-5, 2014 San Diego, CA
Dec. 11-12, 2014 Atlanta, GA
Jan. 22-23, 2015 Phoenix, AZ
Feb. 3-4, 2015 Tampa, FL
Feb. 12-13, 2015 Las Vegas, NV
Presented by ASCD author Pete Hall, this collaborative two-day institute will teach
participants how to use the innovative Continuum of Self-Reflection as a powerful
tool to enhance self-reflection, to increase teacher effectiveness, and to strengthen
school culture.
of achievement, even in the three years since it struck an agreement
with state education officials to take several concrete actions meant
to provide better instructional services for those students.
Now, under the leadership of Chancellor Carmen Fariña, the
district is pledging anew to vastly improve outcomes for Englishlearners.
She has created a new position to oversee all Englishlearner
programs and tapped a longtime dual-language educator and
administrator to run it.
Milady Baez, whose title is senior executive director of the
department of English-language learners and student support, will
be a member of the chancellor's senior management team and report
directly to Fariña. That organizational arrangement is rare, if not
unprecedented, for a director of English-language-learner programs.
State officials are also pushing ahead with plans to dramatically
improve achievement for English-learners across all districts.
But with 75 percent of the state's 215,000 ells in New York City,
achievement won't budge much unless the city's ells improve.
-LESLI A. MAXWELL
Pirate Talk: A New Requirement
For American High Schoolers?
differenTiaTed insTrucTion and The new sTandards: helping all learners
succeed wiTh challenging conTenT
Nov. 13-14, 2014 Memphis, TN
Dec. 3-4, 2014 Long Beach, CA
Dec. 11-12, 2014 Atlanta, GA
Jan. 22-23, 2015 Phoenix, AZ
Feb. 10-11, 2015 Las Vegas, NV
disrupTing poverTy: Turning high-poverTy schools inTo high-performing
schools
Nov. 11-12, 2014 Memphis, TN
Dec. 2-3, 2014 San Diego, CA
Dec. 9-10, 2014 Atlanta, GA
Jan. 20-21, 2015 Phoenix, AZ
Feb. 3-4, 2015 Tampa, FL
Feb. 12-13, 2015 Las Vegas, NV
engaged and inspired: high-impacT sTraTegies To moTivaTe and challenge
each learner-an ascd "flipped" learning opporTuniTy
Dec. 1, 2014 Long Beach, CA
Dec. 5, 2014 San Diego, CA
Dec. 10, 2014 Atlanta, GA
fiT Teaching™: an inTroducTion To The framework for inTenTional and
TargeTed Teaching
Nov. 11-12, 2014 Memphis, TN
Dec. 2-3, 2014 San Diego, CA
Dec. 3-4, 2014 Long Beach, CA
Jan. 20-21, 2015 Phoenix, AZ
Feb. 5-6, 2015 Tampa, FL
Feb. 10-11, 2015 Las Vegas, NV
essenTial QuesTions: opening doorways To sTudenT undersTanding
Dec. 2, 2014
1-Day INSTITUTE
Long Beach, CA
Dec. 4, 2014 San Diego, CA
Dec. 9, 2014
Feb. 5, 2015
Feb. 6, 2015
Atlanta, GA
Tampa, FL
Tampa, FL
Based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson, participants will develop learning targets,
design lessons that challenge and support every learner, and leverage formative
assessment data to help plan, guide, scaffold, and extend the instruction of rigorous
content.
Based on the ASCD bookTurning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools,
authors William Parrett and Kathleen Budge will provide participants with a framework
for collaborative action.
This institute is a "flipped" model that blends both online and on-site learning. Participants
will be a part of an online virtual learning community both before and after the
one-day, on-site institute.
| CURRICULUM MATTERS | When you cover the Common Core State
Standards day in and day out, it's not surprising to hear some
eyebrow-raising-and totally groundless-claims made in the debate.
(Remember the one about eyeball-tracking technology?) So you could
be forgiven if you wondered-for one teensy little second-whether
this missive, which landed in inboxes last week, was for real.
A "leaked U.S. Department of Education memo," the email said, will
recommend that high schools in all common-core states adopt a new
curriculum: "Pirate as a Second Language." It said the memo had
been signed by John Easton, the former director of the department's
Institute of Education Sciences.
Of course, the email was a stunt. It went on to say that the
curriculum shift would support "Talk Like a Pirate Day," which
happened to be last Friday. It included links that purported to be a
message from Easton or to show data about increases in the use of
"pirate and pirate-related language" online. But they actually led
readers to a video of goofy guys dancing around in pirate gear and
offering tips on how to talk like a pirate.
This bit of fluffery was the brainchild of Elasticity, a St. Louis-based
public-relations and social-media firm that is representing Café
Press, which makes customizable products such as mugs and T-shirts.
They're hoping to capitalize on "Talk Like a Pirate Day" to sell items
emblazoned with, well, pirate images.
"Café Press likes to do these stunts," said Taylor Lutkewitte, the
Elasticity representative who sent out the email and signed it,
"public-relations strategist & Grammar Police Commissioner." "They
like to take issues and turn them on their head to give people a
chuckle. Common core was in the news, so we said, 'Why don't we go
ahead and make a spoof?' "
Learn how the FIT Teaching framework can support educators in developing the tools
and skills necessary for enhancing teacher effectiveness and positively impacting
student achievement.
All Kindergartners in Nevada
Given College-Savings Accounts
Based on the ASCD book, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, will share how to create a
culture of inquiry whereby all members of the educational community benefit from the
increased rigor and deepened understandings that emerge by using essential questions
as a guiding force for all learners.
REGISTER TODAY!
www.ascd.org/institutes
1-800-933-2723 or 1-703-578-9600, then press 1
10 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 24, 2014 | www.edweek.org
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9/11/14 11:02 AM
| COLLEGE BOUND | In Nevada, starting kindergarten means starting
to save money for college.
A college-savings plan with $50 is established for each child under
the Nevada Kick Start Program, which began as a pilot in 2013 and
was recently expanded.
State Treasurer Kate Marshall points to research showing a child
with a college-savings account is up to seven times more likely to
attend college than one without an account, regardless of family
income, ethnicity, or the educational attainment of the child's parents.
San Francisco had a similar program, but Marshall said she doesn't
know of any other statewide initiative.
The 529 college-savings accounts are established automatically
by the state treasurer's office and held in a master account. The
money comes from fees paid to the treasurer's office by the private
companies that serve as program managers for the College Savings
Plans of Nevada, along with donations from community partners.
Parents can only withdraw money from the account for highereducation-related
expenses when the child is entering college, a trade
school, or a technical college.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ
-CARALEE J. ADAMS

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Education Week - September 24, 2014

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