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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
