<<On the Blackboard>>
Don’t Miss EWA’s Tightening the Belt, Expanding the Reach Seminar
This two-day regional higher ed seminar will be held Feb. 27-28 at the San Francisco Chronicle. Topics include: higher education policy in tough economic times, the effects of declining state appropriations on access, the challenges for Asian students as the "model minority," and the success and failure of transfers from community colleges to 4-year institutions. Scholarships, as always, are available to reporters. This seminar is for reporters only and space is limited. You can contact Raven Hill.
"Reality Check --Where is Education Heading?"
From preschool to K-12 schools, from dropouts to millennials, from teacher pay to student aid—and much more— the Education Writers Association's annual conference will address how the education trends and policies we cover are actually playing out in the real world. Practical sessions also will look at FERPA and FOIA, next steps in blogging and social networking, the future of education reporting and alternate career paths. The EWA 62nd annual National Seminar will be held in Washington, D.C. April 30-May 2. Scholarships are available for reporters. Find out how you can participate in this year's meeting go to this web address http://ewa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=ns_home. See you this spring in the nation's capital!
The next big thing: Covering online education
by EWA public editor Linda Perlstein
Every education reporter has heard the mantra: If you want to know what’s going on in schools, get into the classroom. But if you want to understand one of the fastest growing trends in American education, here’s a new imperative: Sit in front of the computer.
This holds true no matter what part of the educational spectrum you cover. Three million post-secondary students and more than 1 million K-12 students haven taken online courses, according to the Sloan Consortium, a eedham, Mass.-based nonprofit that supports distance learning efforts. Michigan and Alabama require students to take an online class before they graduate, and a couple of other states are considering similar rules.
Distance learning is, by its nature, often invisible to education reporters. The most obvious line of coverage is to explore what the online course experience looks like and feels like—and how it differs from taking classes face-to-face. This may require you to spend time not in the lecture hall but in the computer lab, or the Wi-fi coffee shop with a 50-year-old career changer, or even—heaven help us—the bedroom of a 16-year-old AP student or recovered dropout. (Do teenagers have the discipline to do their work without teachers in their faces every day? Let’s look.)
Probably the best way to see what online learning is all about is to take a class, or classes, yourself. At the very least, set up some demonstrations. Do so in various subjects, because certainly the experience is different in a course such as Intro to Calculus versus Historical Linguistics, Ancient Inscriptions and Archaeology. (Yes, that is a distance learning class, at Harvard.) Do so at various institutions, because there is a such a wide range, from online-only schools, such as the University of Phoenix or Monroe Virtual Middle School, to traditional school systems and colleges that have set up classes based on their own curricula. Check out an online class that is also offered in person, so you can compare the experiences.
As you explore how online learning differs from traditional coursework, be careful of preconceived notions. There are probably students who study for four years on campus and never interact with a professor, and people who study online and communicate with their instructors almost daily.
Beyond the actual course-taking experience, look at the teaching. How are those who teach online trained and evaluated? Do teachers and professors devote the same amount of effort to their online classes as they do to their face-to-face classes? When Erin Jordan of the Des Moines Register started investigating bonuses paid to University of Iowa professors teaching distance classes—one health science professor’s online courses brought his total load to 14 classes in a year—the school capped how many classes each person could teach. It wasn’t just about the money, but about how the extra load might affect students.
Look into other questions: Do states and districts and schools have the capacity to meet the demand for courses and ensure their quality, and are the courses aligned with state standards? (New Jersey recently abandoned a planned K-12 online requirement because of a lack of courses.) Does some students’ lack of access to the Internet hinder an institution’s goal of expanding access through online courses?
And, as always, follow the money. Why is a school offering online instruction? If the sole reason is to save money, it’s worth looking at whether that is really happening. In some cases, building an online class can cost as much or more as offering a course face-to-face. Or, as Kevin Carey shows in this terrific piece about innovative online math instruction at Virginia Tech, savings from a low-cost model may not reduce an institution’s bottom line, depending on how else officials choose to spend their money.
There’s the question we always must ask at the onset of any trend: Who is benefitting from the boom? In January, Elliot Mann of the Rochester, Minn., Post-Bulletin, wrote an interesting piece about how per-pupil funding follows students out of their districts into the ones where online academies are based. Of course there are finances to track on plenty of legitimate efforts, but a true scam is good to find, as Bill Morlin and Jim Camden found last summer when the Spokesman-Review reporters investigated a Spokane diploma mill—and named names.
To get up to speed on online education, look at the Sloan Consortium’s news feedof stories related to online learning and their recently completed national survey of K-12 online education. Check out the International Association for K-12 Online Learning’s fact sheet. Read this Education Week online chat with three promoters of online learning.
Above all, get yourself out of the classroom—you don’t hear me say that often!—and get yourself in front of a computer.
Public editor Linda Perlstein is available to help you. Contact her at 410-539-2464 or lperlstein@ewa.org.
Reports: High School Reform, College Endowments, New Reporter Web Tools and More!
Closing the Expectations Gap
Achieve will release its annual report on the progress of high school reform in all 50 states Thursday, Feb. 19. The report will be discussed in Washington, D.C. at the Capital View Conference Room. Sign up here for the press briefing, or if you can’t attend watch the group’s website for the report’s posting.
More Resources on Reporting on Schools and the Economy
The American Association of School Administrators will bring school leaders and economic experts together in San Francisco to discuss how schools can save money and best serve students. You can follow conference highlights through Conference Daily on AASA’s home page Feb. 19-21. In the meantime, if you need statistics on how the economic downturn is affecting public schools, check out these AASA surveys.
College Endowments Plunge
Stocks are sliding. Gas prices are inching up. And college endowments are taking a big hit. The National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers released a survey finding higher ed endowments reported an average rate of return of -3 percent in 2008. The endowment picture doesn’t look so rosy for the first half of this fiscal year either. NACUBO performed a follow-up survey finding investment returns fell an additional 23 percent between the months of July and November. You can read the survey here.
Teens and Internet Life
Here is a fact that may surprise you. Generation Y (otherwise known as the Millennials) aren’t as absorbed in Internet activities as most people might believe. A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that only 30 percent of 18- to 32- year- olds make up the Internet population. Teens and Generation Y are more likely to use the Internet for entertainment. Most popular activities include blogging, downloading music, playing games, and visiting a virtual world. Also, emailing is passe` for 12- to 17-year- olds, who prefer to instant message.
New Web Tool Comparing Urban Districts
If you want to see how your school district measures up to others, then check out the Broad Foundation’s new web tool. The foundation will help you access school data for urban districts. You can compare your district to others and view student achievement data to see if school districts are making progress on a number of indicators. They include closing the achievement gap and improving graduation rates. Information is available here.
Small Schools and Spending
A new report released by Education Resource Strategies finds three urban school districts spend more on small high schools than on large high schools when they don’t have to. Baltimore, Boston and Chicago spend between 10 to 20 percent more per pupil on small high schools. The authors recommend that districts use a dollar formula instead of a staffing formula to give schools greater flexibility.
What’s the Verdict on Advanced Placement
The College Board says more high school students have access to AP courses and are passing exams with a score of 3 or higher. Students last year made a strong showing on tests, with 15.2 percent of them making a 3 or higher. That’s an increase from five years ago when 12.2 percent of students taking an AP exam passed. Despite the increase, the College Board cautions that more work has to be done to increase minority students’ participation and passing rates.
While the news may boost the image of school districts, some reporters are frustrated by how scores are being reported. Particularly of concern to some reporters is that the College Board considers a passing score 3 or higher and thus reports the scores of 3-5 together, when some elite colleges will only give credit for a score of 5 and others accept 4 or 5 but not a 3.
Trevor Packer, executive director of the AP Program at the College Board, tells EWA the scores, which predict college success, are a separate issue from whether a student can attain credit towards graduation.
“Research studies show consistently over the past three decades that students scoring 3 or better have developed skills that increase their likelihood of graduating from college in four years, and are ready for placement into an intermediate level college course in that subject area,” Packer says.
“Research is so consistent in identifying the score of 3 as the score that predicts such college success, there is no “artificial success” in reporting the number of students scoring 3 or better on AP Exams,” he says. “In fact, some colleges even give credits for scores of 2, and research shows that even students scoring a 2 on an AP Exam are graduating at higher rates than students who didn’t take AP in high school.”
Packer adds that it is the norm for students applying to selective colleges to take a several AP exams. With so many students earning credit, selective colleges needed to restrict the amount of AP credit they offer so students would earn the majority of college credit on campus, not in high school. The decision is fair and appropriate, he says.
If you have any more questions for Packer about this topic he can be reached at TPacker@collegeboard.org.
Media Notes
The Ed Reporter has kept you up to date on all the changes happening in journalism. This edition is no different. The McClatchy Corporation is the latest in a string of media companies to announce cutbacks. Because of declining revenue the company says it will freeze the pensions of employees and temporarily stop matching contributions to employees’ 401 (k) plans.
Sometimes, you got to know when to fold it. The American Journalism Review explores this topic in a piece about the internal struggles metro editors face to either fight for journalism principles when confronted with company cutbacks or to step aside quietly.
Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time Magazine and CEO of the Aspen Institute, offers several strategies on how newspapers can be saved in a piece written for his old publication.
Fellowships, Jobs and Media Meetings
The International Women’s Media Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2009-10 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship. The fellowship is open to women journalists whose reporting focuses on human rights and social justice. Go here to apply.
The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) needs a new director of research and evaluation.
The Chronicle of Higher Education needs a new technology reporter. If interested, send applications and clips to Josh Fischman, senior editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Email: josh.fischman@chronicle.com.
The Knight Center for Digital Media is accepting applications for its News Entrepreneur Bootcamp. Deadline for applications is Feb. 16.
From the Beat
Alonso comes 'as is'
by Sara Neufeld
The Baltimore Sun
In July 2007, Andrés Alonso — the immigrant with four Ivy League degrees — charged into Baltimore to bring a culture of high achievement to a school system where historically only about half the students have graduated. It is an enormous task, one at which many have failed, not only here but in cities across America. But Alonso, a 51-year-old bachelor, believes fervently that the poor, minority children born into America's underclass don't have to be stuck there. His urgency and intensity, often fueled by little more than diet Lipton green tea, have inspired some employees and alienated others.
California's community colleges near the breaking point
by Gale Holland
The Los Angeles Times
Facing yawning budget gaps, California's public universities are shifting thousands of applicants into a community college system already swamped by newly unemployed adults and students priced out of other schools. By holding down enrollment, the shift would help balance budgets at UC and CSU campuses. But officials say the move seems likely to worsen problems at the state's 110 two-year campuses.
Let's Talk About Sex
by Alison Lobron
The Boston Globe
With U.S. sex education heading into its second century, some educators are suggesting that sex ed can, and should, be about more than just all the things that can go wrong, that adults need to do more than robotically recite statistics about condom failure or the merits of abstinence. This new approach, almost too small to be called a movement, exists largely outside the public schools, but it's a new twist in a debate that often gets bogged down in finger-pointing and name-calling.
Volusia teachers will substitute for absent co-workers
Dave Weber
The Orlando Sentinel
The party's over for kids at DeLand High and other high schools across Volusia County who were sent to gyms or other "super sub centers" to sit and chatter when teachers were out sick and substitutes weren't available. As part of an agreement reached Monday by negotiators for the teachers union and the School Board, other teachers will cover for most instructors who are absent. Students who still have to go to large group centers will be given packets of schoolwork to keep them busy.
Please send your best stories and member news to Mesha Williams at publications@ewa.org
**About us**
The Education Writers Association is the national professional organization of education reporters dedicated to improving education reporting to the public. Contact us by email at ewa@ewa.org, by phone at (202) 452-9830, by fax at (202) 452-9837 or by mail at 2122 P Street NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC, 20037.Our officers include: Richard Whitmire, president; Kent Fischer, education reporter at the Dallas Morning News, vice president/actives; Marie Groark, senior policy officer and spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, vice president/associates; Kathy Baron, morning host/education reporter at northern California's KQED-FM (on leave), secretary; Linda Lenz, publisher of Catalyst, immediate past president. Our board members include Dale Mezzacappa, former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and now a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, Tanya Schevitz, higher education reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle; John Merrow of Learning Matters Inc.; Rodney Ferguson, executive vice president of Lipman Hearne Inc.; Stephanie Banchero, reporter for Chicago Tribune; Cornelia Grumman, vice president of the First Five Years Fund; Elizabeth Green, reporter for Gotham Schools. org; Scott Elliott, columnist for the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. Find contact information at our Web site, http://www.ewa.org.
