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Latest News & Discussion

Math flashback, too close to home, and head scratching

December 1, 2006 by kathy

Apparently, in 1998, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer (yes, PBS), did a segment on the math wars.  Based in the little town of Corvallis, Oregon, a small school called Fairplay, decided to start using "fuzzy math" curriculum called Mathland.  Fairplay is now closed.But what is more interesting is that a group of parents said "no way to this crap at Fairplay" and started their own school in Corvallis - a public school without boundaries.  It's called Franklin and it will likely become tennis courts in the near future for the high school next door. 

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How Oregon parents can fight back bad math programs

November 29, 2006 by kathy

Beaverton Valley Times article with comments at the bottom

Oregonian opinion pieces

Parents against bad education: Illinoisloop.org

Mail list for Beaverton School District Parents and educators who want effective math in the schools

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Beaverton School District Possible Conflict of Interest

November 29, 2006 by kathy

Story

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Spy vs. Spy?

November 22, 2006 by kathy

Naw, just charter school vs. charter school.  And, well, not really that either. My daily search through google news for "charter school" Oregon found two stories about charter schools:1. Application for a charter in Eugene to teach multiculturalism, "multilingual social justice", and a second language.

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Home Depot Insurance Pays for ABA?

November 21, 2006 by kathy

Someone has to check Home Depot in Oregon to see if they will pay for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) as a treatment for children with autism. If so, what are requirements (Certification, Licensure) and how much do they cover?NY Times Op Ed - 11/21/06But among major American corporations, only Microsoft, Home Depot and two or three others offer comparable benefits. Virtually no private health plans do. The Department of Defense has some, though it has been introducing bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining coverage that could make it inaccessible for most as a practical matter. 

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Homeschooling - advise from another blogger

November 14, 2006 by kathy

StoryAnother blogger wrote a great article on how to home school. This blogger must be a closeted Direct Instruction fan:Most of the work of learning has to do with learning "words" and what they mean. No matter what you are studying go overboard in getting a kid to understand every "word" you are using.

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Rand study notes lack of proper implementation for school wide reform programs

November 10, 2006 by kathy

2 different articles point to why school wide reforms might not work. One article notes:U.S. schools aren't fully implementing strategies to boost student achievement, hurting themselves and casting doubt on research that questions the effectiveness of such plans, a Rand Corp. study found.The study of 250 elementary and secondary schools in Florida and Texas found none had adopted all of the changes outlined in the improvement plans devised by academic experts, according to Rand, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based research institute.That could help explain why the widely used programs — Accelerated Schools, Core Knowledge, Direct Instruction and Success for All — often show little or no results, study author Georges Vernez said."You need to implement all the components of the model," said Vernez, a senior social scientist at Rand. "There is a great deal of variation in implementation."Let me sum it up. Schools that are forced to implement school-wide reforms don't implement correctly and thus the results are not as good. Hmmm. I wonder why that would be?

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American Institutes for Research Issues Updated Rating of 22 Widely Used Comprehensive School Reform Models

November 9, 2006 by kathy

I'm not trying to sound like the ultimate "Direct Instruction" fangirl, but I fear it is too late. An independent nonprofit group called the American Institutes for Research updated their research on consumer ratings for school wide reforms. In the article, Direct Instruction and Success For All were the only 2 models given a "moderately strong" rating. Non were given a "very strong." Not sure what qualifies for "very strong": maybe school in heaven or one to one structure.

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Oregon study meets highest standards in US for research on reading programs

November 9, 2006 by kathy

One might consider the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) an arm of the right-wing machine.  I have no idea.  But they are definitely proponents of Direct Instruction.  Geez, they are right next door to the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.  On the other hand, could it also show that we have a great curriculum program in Oregon that the state of Oregon and entire nation completely ignores?  If that were true, would it make sense that some researchers would gather together and set out to prove, "Hey, this Direct Instruction stuff works!"  It sounds like a conflict of interest but I'm not so sure.

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Get ready: Traditional math will be making a comeback

November 7, 2006 by kathy

Did you read either of these stories (hint: they're all the same):Experts tackle nations math problemPanel at Stanford finding solutions to math problemPanel seeks to boost students' math skills Get ready, your kids are headed back to old-old math: the kind that teaches math basics without calculators, uses instructional techniques that have worked for decades but were foregone for the "new" way of teaching. 

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Reading First: More money CAN get results?

November 7, 2006 by kathy

So why are stories like the one on Foster's Online in Dover, NH so common? "Our test scores are up, thanks to the Reading First Program," said Fuller, adding that the district's dropout rate is now one of the lowest in the state. "[These programs] take time to continue through the rest of the grades," she said.Why do I google "Reading First" and ALWAYS get success news stories? Now I know that just adding more money to the education system does not necessarily guarantee better results. In fact here in Oregon, one could say more money hasn't given better results. So what makes the billions of dollars put out by the federal government as grants to states work?

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What do you get when you put a bunch of Oregon Ed.D.s together?

November 6, 2006 by kathy

You get crap, and lots of it. [Ed.D. - Doctorate of Crap, I mean education] See for yourself with the Oregon K-12 benchmarks. Want to know what your child should be able to do by the end of first grade? Well, you won't. Oregon benchmarks start in the 3rd grade. But if you project backwards you might be able to come up with the crap that the Corvallis Ed.D.s came up with.As a taxpayer, I want my money back. And I want all the standards developers fired. And I want realistic, measurable, and crap-less standards that PARENTS and TEACHERS can read and understand. Did I mention that I want the standards developers fired?

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Garfield letters of dual language support continues

November 6, 2006 by kathy

Because I can't help myself, I'm going to keep a little list of replies to the original Gillespie editorial I commented on .

Another parent, Pete Meyers writes in :

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Corvallis Garfield Elementary Dual Language Program Questioned

November 2, 2006 by kathy

Story

Hmm. Andy Gillespie has a couple of children that go to a public elementary school in Corvallis, Oregon. I'm not sure if this is Andy's children's home school or school of choice. But they decided to switch out of the dual language program and put their children into the regular educational program.

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OMSI in Corvallis November 18th

October 30, 2006 by kathy

OMSI in Corvallis
Super Science Saturday
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Cheldelin Middle School, 987 NE Conifer, Corvallis

Brought to you by Parents for Education Plus (PE+) (PE+ is a nonprofit organization)

The educational staff of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will be in Corvallis on Saturday, Noventher 18. They will present an exciting variety of classes for children from first through sixth grade.

Cost: $8.00 for each one-hour class

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Unless school districts and other providers of early intervention 'get on the bandwagon' and start OFFERING effective early intervention (which has been known for years now) rather than forcing parents to FIGHT for effective intervention(s) one at a time, greater awareness will not lead to more effective early intervention and improved outcomes.

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