Category: x2013

How have different educators and policy makers adapted their strategies in order to best cater to non English speaking Latinos and illegal immigrants?

In 2011 the number of illegal immigrants was close to 12 million people. Most illegal immigrants come from Latin America with hopes of providing a better life for their kids and for their families. Many American teachers don’t know exactly how to approach the education of these new citizens. How do different reformers such as Pedro Noguera approach the situation? What are some arguments about civil rights for illegal immigrants and their kids? Are illegal immigrants by law allowed an education and is it equal? Latino and immigrant populations are expected to continue to grow. how have different educators and policy makers adapted their strategies in order to best cater to this demographic?

Why should this be researched?

This population is growing so much more quickly than any other population in the United States. It is important to know what has happened in the past and how to make the American Dream attainable for this group of people. My secondary source “The New Latino South” gives a quick story about a teacher from Atlanta who came into contact with a growing student population of Latinos some who couldn’t speak English. This teacher struggled with the situation because some of her new students had little formal education and couldn’t speak English. The goal of this research paper is to find out what has been done in the past and survey the literary landscape for the best potential alternatives for the future in order to offer an equal educational experience.

Where and how you found your primary sources?

My primary sources include “Understanding the Disenfranchisement of Latino Men and Boys” and “The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies”. These readings are found in the Trinity College Library. Andrew Wainer’s piece seems very useful because it provides qualitative research data that provide tips and clues for teachers.

 

Slavin, Robert E, and Margarita Calderón. Effective Programs for Latino Students. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Print.

Contreras, Frances. Achieving Equity for Latino Students: Expanding the Pathway to Higher Education Through Public Policy. New York: Teachers College Press, 2011. Print.

Noguera, Pedro, Aída Hurtado, and Edward Fergus. Understanding the Disenfranchisement of Latino Men and Boys: Invisible No More. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

MacDonald, Victoria-María. Latino Education in the United States: A Narrated History from 1513-2000. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.

Gandara, Patricia C, and Frances Contreras. The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2009. Print.

Wainer, Andrew. The New Latino South and the Challenge to Public Education. Gradynews.net. The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, n.d. Web. <http://gradynews.net/src/Latino/binder/Resources/newchallengesed.pdf>.

Research Question:

How did metro integration advocates envision Hartford county public schools after the Sheff v. O’Neill ruling?  Why didn’t their vision come to fruition?

Significance: 

As a graduate of Hartford public schools, I feel as though I was not given access to an education that would adequately prepare me for higher education.  A quality education should be a public good equally available to all students.  Historically in the state of Connecticut, where you live has been the primary (and sometimes sole) determining factor as to what type of education a child will receive.  There is vast disparity between the qualities of education children in urban areas receive in comparison to their suburban counterparts.  I am interested in the way school district lines have been drawn and their impact on diversity throughout Hartford County.  In the state of Connecticut, wealthy suburban children seem to be walled off from impoverished urban children.  If there were such a way to alleviate the segregation of children from these backgrounds, why hasn’t it been done?

The 1989 case, Sheff v. O’Neill sought to provide all children within the state of Connecticut access to their “fundamental right to education and equal protection under the law”.  According to the Sheff Movement organization, the lawsuit “seeks to prepare all children to live and prosper in a growing racial/ethic, economically globally connected world.”  Many local reformers have theorized ways in which to remedy the racial and socio-economic segregation of public schools in Hartford county.  The initial vision that integration advocates had for public schools in Hartford County is relevant to our Education Reform course, because it is important to see how reformers of the past sought to remedy the stratification of Hartford schools.  It is also important to note the reasons why metro integration advocates’ recommendations to redraw school district lines based on regions and not towns were not implemented into practice.  Knowledge of this particular group’s past efforts and why they did not work helps to frame the current discussion of what reform strategies are possible for Hartford County public schools to implement today.  Through this analysis, an assessment can be made as to whether redrawing school district lines is a viable integration strategy for current times, and also are the past barriers to redrawing district lines still prevalent today.  From what Jack has shown me, the structure of Hartford County’s past settlement patterns and town based school zones prevents effective racial and socio-economic integration.  I am curious to discover why a reform strategy that seems to remedy Hartford County’s segregation and truly integrate schooling did not come to pass.

Research Strategy:

My first order of business for research is to become familiar with the material.  It is impossible to conduct in-depth research of a topic unless you are knowledgeable on the subject.  My research strategy is to thoroughly read through the consolidation plan that Jack was kind enough to share with me.  I will go through the oral history transcripts that Jack provided me with to get a first hand perspective on what metro integration advocate leaders were seeking and what was actually accomplished.  To uncover why the metro integration plan didn’t happen, I will use the consolidation plan as a starting point and think like a historical actor to pick out key points that may have been controversial at the time.  I will narrow them down and investigate the major themes.  Initially, I used the files Jack gave me and searched for similar terms via the Internet.  As I sift through this first batch of  related sources, I will look through education reform documents of the time to get a general idea of what suggestions or alternatives were on the table at the time of this recommendation.  Hartford obviously chose to go in a different direction to address racial and socio-economic integration.  What made the current strategy more compelling?  Since Sheff v. O’Neill was a catalyst for school integration in Hartford, I will use the major findings of the case to foreground my research. 

Primary Sources:

 “About Sheff v. O’Neill.”  Sheff Movement.  Web.  5 April 2013.  <http://www.sheffmovement.org/aboutsheffvoneill.shtml>

Bruno, Gordon.  Interview with Jennifer Williams.  The Unexamined Remedy Metropolitan School District Oral History.  Hartford, 2004.

Hasegawa, Jack.  Interview with Jennifer Williams.  The Unexamined Remedy Metropolitan School District Oral History.  Hartford, 2004.

Judson, George.  “Poverty Tied To Failures In Hartford.”  New York Times 20 Feb. 1993.  Web.

McDermott, Kathryn.  Interview with Jennifer Williams.  The Unexamined Remedy Metropolitan School District Oral History.  Hartford, 2004.

Sacks, Michael.  “Suburbanization and the Racial/Ethnic Divide in the Hartford Metropolitan Area.”  2003.  PDF file.

Staples, Cameron.  Interview with Jennifer Williams.  The Unexamined Remedy Metropolitan School District Oral History.  Hartford, 2004.

The Connecticut Center for School Change.  The Unexamined Remedy.  1998.  PDF file.

 

Steve Goniprow

 

Education 300

 

Research Project Proposal

 

 

As the widening gap between America’s haves and have-nots continues to cast an ominous cloud over a nation that allegedly provides it’s members with hopes and dreams, how can education be utilized as a tool capable of eradicating income inequality?   More specifically, how has the Obama administration elected to reform the American educational system, a system that is plagued by an achievement gap that directly helps to perpetuate the nation’s grotesque rates of income inequality?  How the Obama administration aims to narrow the achievement gap, and how their plan differs from previous reform efforts, is the question that I wish to explore and hopefully answer with my research project.  I believe that a thorough exploration of the Obama administration’s reform efforts is not only worthy of my research pursuits, but it deserves to be examined because of the rising income gap between working-class and upper-class Americans over the last thirty years.   It is my belief that we can narrow this gap by providing every American with a fair shake at getting a good education, and in doing so, we’ll become a more humane society that other nation’s can learn from in our interconnected world.  In 1848, prominent American education reformer Horace Mann said, “When we have spread competence through all the abodes of poverty, when we have substituted knowledge for ignorance in the minds of the whole people, when we have reformed the vicious and reclaimed the criminal, then may we invite all neighboring nations to behold the spectacle, and say to them, in the conscious elation of virtue, ‘Rejoice with me,’ for I have found that which was lost” (Mann 666).  With Mann’s poignant words in mind, I wish to explore what the Obama administration is doing through educational reform to discover what is lost in this country.                                                                                                   Before Obama took over office in 2008, the Bush administration’s polarizing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act dominated the educational reform efforts of the early 2000’s.  NCLB expanded the federal government’s role in public education by creating standards with which it would hold schools accountable.  In describing NCLB, writers from edweek.org said, “At the core of the No Child Left Behind Act were a number of measures designed to drive broad gains in student achievement and to hold states and schools more accountable for student progress” (edweek.org).  These measures included annual testing for grade-school students in mathematics, reading, and science, while states were also required to bring one hundred percent of it’s student to federally defined proficiency levels by 2013-2014 (edweek.org).  If an individual school failed to make “adequate yearly progress” towards the overarching goal of one hundred percent student proficiency in back-to-back years, students would be offered with the opportunity to attend another public school. If a school continued to fail to make federally defined progress, the school would possibly be faced with “governance changes.”    Furthermore, states were required to develop report cards that charted student-achievement progress while qualifications for teachers in core content areas were also raised.  Lastly, NCLB established a competitive grant program called Reading First that focused on bolstering state’s reading programs for grades K-3 (edweek.org).    While many supporters of NCLB praised the bill for placing a greater degree of accountability on states to improve test scores and make “adequate yearly progress,” many critics of the bill protested it’s unrealistic expectation of one hundred percent proficiency by 2013-2014.  NCLB was developed with the intention of helping underprivileged American youths get a better education and a better life, but former U.S. assistant secretary of education Diane Ravitch believes that NCLB has done just the opposite.  In a 2012 interview, she said, “After 10 years of NCLB, we should have seen dramatic progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, but we have not. By now, we should be able to point to sharp reductions of the achievement gaps between children of different racial and ethnic groups and children from different income groups, but we cannot…many children continue to be left behind, and we know who those children are: They are the same children who were left behind 10 years ago” (washingpost.com).   So if NCLB has not worked towards eliminating poverty and closing the achievement gap that perpetuates income inequality, what has the Obama administration done to address this very serious issue?

The Obama administration’s educational reform efforts have in large part been defined by the Race to the Top program (RTTT).  In describing the goals of the program in a 2009 speech, President Obama said, “We’re going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps towards closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially black and Latino students, a fair shot at their dreams.” (whitehouse.gov).   But how would the President do this?  For starters, while NCLB federally mandated that schools make changes, RTTT simply provides schools with the incentive to make changes (cga.ct.gov).   Under RTTT, Congress set aside over four billion dollars for states that are willing to “create robust plans that address the four key areas of K-12 education reform” (whitehouse.gov).  The four key areas of reform that RTTT focuses on involves developing better standards and assessments, adopting better data systems to track student progress, developing support for teachers and school leaders to become more effective, and increasing the amount resources that the lowest-performing schools need to improve (whitehouse.gov).  In conducting research on NCLB and RTTT, I found that educationweek.org and various other websites were most helpful in the research process.  I did not look at any books in the research process although Diane Ravitch’s text that was assigned for Ed 300 would probably have been a valuable source to draw information from for this proposal.

 

Bibliography

 

Mann, Horace, 1796-1859. Life And Works of Horace Mann. [Boston: Walker, Fuller and co., 186568.

 

Strauss, Valerie. “Ravitch: No Child Left Behind and the Damage Done.” Washington

Post. The Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2013.

 

“COMPARING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND AND RACE TO THE TOP.” N.p., n.d.

Web. 06 Apr. 2013.

 

“Race to the Top.” The White House. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2013.

 

“The White House Blog.” Speeding Up the Race to the Top. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2013.

 

“No Child Left Behind.” Research Center:. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2013.

Research Question: How is Margaret Haley’s vision of an ideal teachers union in 1904 challenged or supported by teacher’s union activists around the turn of the 21^st century?

Relevance: Teacher’s Unions can be one of the most powerful voices in terms of educational politics when operated with efficience. Today, teacher’s unions are receiving a huge part of the blame in the failure of America’s past educational reformation attempts. For me, studying the history of teachers unions, specifically Margaret Nolan’s utopian teacher unions dating all the way back to 1904, and how unions today compare and contrast with her vision would give me a deeper insight at the rights of a student and what the word “education” entails. I woud like to first see if it is accurate to say that unions today are a prohibitor of substantial educational reformation. From there, I will see how one woman’s idea ties with the modern vision of what a teacher union is to stand for. I am curious to see how Margaret Haley’s (ahead of her time) view of what unions should be has evolved to the sense of the most modern vision, the “social justice union”.

I plan to focus on the years between and including 1904-1999, and even touch on today and perhaps the future.

Research Strategy: After speaking with you, I headed to the library plan this whole thing out. Already having two articles from in-class reading was a big kickstart. The same can be said for the copy of Citizen Teacher you showed me, along with the book on unions that you kindly offered. In addition, I found Haley’s autobiography, which I thought could also offer a good understanding of the woman she was. There was another book she wrote that I found while looking for this one that I plan to search through too. If I find that there is a certain aspect of unions that my research may lean towards, I will consider adding and removing select sources.

Primary Sources:

Research Question:

According to the founders what was the initial purpose of the Urban Teacher Residency programs: Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) in Chicago and the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) in Boston? (It is important to note that although these programs are under the same network umbrella they have two different agendas based on the populations they serve). Has this vision changed, why or why not? Lastly, how have teachers’ experiences in the program changed years after the launch of the programs?

I plan to focus on research published on these programs during the years 2000 and 2010.

Relevance: Over the course of this semester we have studied how several education reform movements were developed, implemented, and the changes that occurred over time. The reform movement that interested me the most involves teachers. The increasing focus on teacher accountability in more recent years has made me think about the varied pathways that teachers take to get certified and what that means to their readiness in the field. Teacher retainment rates have been very low. Teacher quality and teacher support should both be studied to ensure that the profession elevates to the level that is desired.Urban Teacher Residencies (UTR) are new programs that have been developed to provide support for teachers and addresses the issues of teacher quality. Teacher trainees commit to 4-5 years in the program. During the first year, the teacher trainees have the opportunity to get a Master’s level degree in their subject of choice while gaining experience in the classroom by shadowing a veteran teacher who serves as a mentor. After completing the first year, the teachers commit to teaching 3 or 4 years and are placed in their own classroom in high-needs school districts in Urban areas.They receive support throughout the remainder of the program to ensure that they provide quality instruction, but also so that remain in the field. This topic is relevant to Ed 300 because the program attempts to address major issues in the field. It important to examine the whether or not this program changed, how and why over time to see if progress is being made.

Research Strategy: To find sources for my web essay I started with Wikipedia to learn what an urban teacher residency is. I searched the sources that were used to write the entry, and I came across a source that conducted a study on both the AUSL and BTR programs that was published in 2008. After looking at Wikipedia, I decided to use the library’s search feature to see if there were any books that addressed urban teacher residencies. I searched for “urban teacher residencies” but the were little results so I decided to search for “alternative teacher certification”. I found a book in the library’s main collection. I was thrilled because this book offers good historical background in the emergence of teacher certification programs in the 1980s. Although this book does not address UTRs it provides great context for why there have been a number of different alternative certification programs throughout the years which will be useful in my analysis. Next, I searched Ed Week for articles related to urban teacher residency. I came across one article one the two UTRs- AUSL and BTR that were discussed in the article that I found via Wikipedia’s source list. After looking at this article, I decided to check out the websites for the each UTR. I also searched for journal articles in the Education full text journal. I came across an article that addressed the issue of teacher shortages which would be helpful to examine teacher retainment strategies and how this program adds up.

I feel that all of these sources will be very useful for my final paper.

Sources:

Alternative Routes to Teaching: Mapping the New Landscape of Teacher Education. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Education Press, 2008. Print.

Berry, Barnett, Diana Montgomery, Rachel Curtis, Mindy Hernandez, Judy Wurtzel, and John Snyder. “Creating and Sustaining Urban Teacher Residencies: A New Way to Recruit, Prepare and Retain Highly Effective Teachers in High-Needs Districts.” Center for Teaching Quality, the Aspen Institute, and Bank Street College. August 2008.

Honawar, Vaishali. “Boston, Chicago Teacher ‘Residencies’ Gaining Notice.” Education Week 17 Sept. 2008. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.

“Teacher Shortages.” CQ Researcher by CQ Press. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.

“Urban Teacher Residency.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.

Alternative Urban School Leadership. n.p. 2013. http://auslchicago.org/

Boston Teacher Residency. n.p.  2013. http://www.bostonteacherresidency.org/

Research Question:

How has the need for, and implementation of, Bilingual Education in Hartford, Connecticut changed over the years?

Why does this deserve to be researched?

In October of 2010, I was placed at McDonough Expeditionary Learning School (MELS) for my classroom placement as part of a requirement for my Education 200: Analyzing Schools class. I was very eager to work with Chris Gentile, a recent Teach for America graduate at the time, and felt that I could bring a new perspective to his 6^th grade classroom; as a product of the Hartford Public School system, I felt that I could truly relate to the students at McDonough and serve as a valuable asset to Mr. Gentile in the classroom. During my first few weeks at McDonough, I found myself in a very difficult position: although I wanted to spend my time helping the students in the classroom with science projects and other assignments, I found myself being used mostly as a translator between Mr. Gentile and four [transfer] students who were in his homeroom – Maria, Josue, Valializ and Reyna Rivera. These students had recently moved to Hartford from Puerto Rico and were immediately enrolled into a Hartford school by their mother, who did not want to see them fall behind in their academics.

The Vice Principal at MELS at the time, Dirk Olmstead explained that the school no longer had an official ELL program (English Language Learners) but rather, the Rivera children spent their fourth period in a class for students with developmental and behavioral problems. In this class, typically taught by a member of the McDonough school support staff, students received specialized attention with their classwork. Many times the class was taught by a bilingual staff-person; however, this was not always the case. I realized immediately that this arrangement was problematic – the Rivera children were not “bad” kids, they simply did not understand a word of English.

Under No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Title I and Title III, school districts must offer Educational programs for limited English proficient (LEP) students/English language learners (ELLs).The arrangement at MELS shows a shift in position on the importance of Bilingual education [and the ELL program] among Hartford Public School Administration– which is evident due to the lack of funding for Bilingual education programs, according to several school administrators. This issue is important to me because I was a product of ELL instruction. At home, my primary language was Spanish and I found the ELL program to be my saving grace at school, because I was able to learn English in a relatively short amount of time, I was able to do well both inside and outside of the classroom. I saw first-hand the many pains that students such as Reyna and Josue experienced in Mr. Gentile’s class, labeled as delinquents because they could not sit still and do any of the work. I truly believe that this is an issue of keystone importance affecting non-English speaking children enrolled in Hartford Public Schools today. I am interested in exploring Hartford Public Schools, as well as, independent schools such as La Escuelita Bilingual School (formerly Ann Street School).

 

Research Strategy:

Using the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), JSTOR – the “digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources”, Google Scholar, the Trinity College Library catalog, I searched for key terms using the following words and phrases:

1. “Bilingual Education & Hartford, CT”
2. “Bilingual Education in Hartford, CT
3. “ELL programs in Hartford, CT”
4. “Bilingual Education as Special Education”
5. “Bilingual Education in Hartford Public Schools”

Although these searches bring up some good literature for this topic, it seems that the literature is limited. I will need to conduct interviews with teachers or administrators that are familiar with HPS policy trends in the specific field of Bilingual education. I would also like to conduct interviews with bilingual students who attend Hartford schools to gain insight into their experiences at their respective schools.

 

Bibliography of Possible Sources:

Ardinger, Ashley. “English Language Learners: an analysis of policy and achievement over time.” (2012).

“Bilingual Programs Increasing in City.” The Hartford Courant (1923-1984) [Hartford, Conn.] 19 Aug. 1973,12I. ProQuest Historical Newspapers Hartford Courant (1923 – 1984). ProQuest. Trinity College, Hartford, CT. 4 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/

Cohen, Linda M. Meeting the needs of gifted and talented minority language students: Issues and practices. No. 8. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, 1988.

Gersten, Russell, and Robert T. Jimenez. “A delicate balance: Enhancing literature instruction for students of English as a second language.” The Reading Teacher 47.6 (1994): 438-449.

Papirno, Elisa. “Puerto Rican Children Getting Bilingual Education at La Escuelita. ” The Hartford Courant (1923-1984) [Hartford, Conn.] 28 May 1973,33. ProQuest Historical Newspapers Hartford Courant (1923 – 1984). ProQuest. Trinity College, Hartford, CT. 4 Mar. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>

Park, Sunny. “Teaching English to English Language Learners in 1960s and Today.” (2008).

Rossell, Christine H., and Keith Baker. “The educational effectiveness of bilingual education.” Research in the Teaching of English (1996): 7-74.

Torres, Karina. “Language Policies: A study of Language Ideologies in Connecticut State Policies for English Language Learners.” (2012).

Zirkel, Perry Alan. “An evaluation of the effectiveness of selected experimental bilingual education programs in Connecticut.” (1972).

 

Next Step: I am scheduled to meet with Jack on  Monday, April 8, 2013 at 11:40am to receive feedback on my proposal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question: How has the implementation of the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago affected graduation rates/test scores compared to traditional high schools in the Chicagoland area from 1990 to present day?

Why?

For many years, parents have sought to send their children to top high schools that will prepare them for college without the private school cost. Moreover, many of the parents in Chicago try to send their kids to magnet schools, charter schools, and montessori high schools to avoid having their children sent to their neighborhood high schools which have a reputation for producing lower test scores and graduation rates. One network of charter schools has quickly been expanding in Chicago, and has caught the attention of high schoolers all over Chicago: the Noble Network of Charter Schools. As we analyzed Geoffrey Canada’s work in Harlem with the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City, the effectiveness of charter schools and how they compared to other district schools was not gone into depth with the novel Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough which sparked my interest. Moreover, I hope to analyze the test scores from this network of charter high schools and analyze the impact that the Noble Network of Charter Schools has over the graduations and test scores in Chicago with quantitative data.

Research Strategy:

I started my research with EdWeek.org and searched for articles associating with charter schools in Chicago and school choice movements. I started to look through search engines using the library; however, either only a couple of sources or no sources at all would appear no matter how general or specific I made my search so I began to use Google Scholar for a more broad search. For specific statistics, I visited the Noble Network of Charter Schools website and found some basic graduation statistics and took more graduations statistics for Chicago overall from the Chicago Sun times. I plan to contact a couple of the Noble Network of Charter Schools advocates including the superintendent Michael Milkie.

Sources:

Cullen, Julie B., Brian A. Jacob, and Steven D. Levitt. “The Impact of School Choice on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Chicago Public Schools.”ScienceDirect.com. Journal of Public Economics, 26 Aug. 2004. Web. 05 Apr. 2013. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272704000738>.

Greene, Jay P., and Marcus A. Winters. “Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002.” Www.gatesfoundation.org. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 8 Feb. 2005. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

Kevin, Booker, Brian Gill, Ron Zimmer, and Tim R. Sass. “Achievement and Attainment in Chicago Charter Schools: A Summary. Research Brief.”Rand.org. RAND Corporation, 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2013. <http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9345/>.

Question: How and why has single-sex education been implemented and evolved in Hartford over the last fifteen years?

Relevance: Single-sex education is a cultural phenomenon, where gender differences are utilized to benefit students, rather than marginalize or ostracize individuals. Single-sex education allows students to grow in an academic environment surrounded only by those of the same sex, eliminating many gendered conflicts that arise in developing adolescents. Single-sex education takes male and female complications and interactions, physically, mentally, and emotionally, out of the academic setting, shifting those relations to an out of school setting. This allows academics to take precedent over such issues.

Research Strategy: My main focus when searching for sources was variety. I wanted to make sure that I was drawing from a multitude of different types of sources. Therefore, I utilized Google, Google scholar, JSTOR, The Connecticut Government webpage, cga.ct.gov, and the Trinity College Library to find sources. In order to determine how single-sex education has evolved over the past 15 years, The Hartford Courant articles will show the differing opinions of the people of Hartford and the government pertaining to funding and experimenting with the method. I will also use the yearly reports published by the Connecticut Public School system on single-sex education, which tracks statistics, goals and mission statements of their efforts. I located this text through the Connecticut State Education Research Center online. I needed to make sure that my sources accurately depict how single-sex education has changed over time, so I next looked for sources that ranged back from 1998. I was able to find an article from The Hartford Courant dating back to 1998. This article reflects on the debate of Single-sex education, and women who were defending its ideologies. Based on the viewpoint of single-sex education from Hartford’s residents in 1998, I can track how the attitudes have changed and shifted over time. I also located an Education Policy book published each year, wherein the benefits and fallbacks of single-sex education are investigated.

Sources:

The Advantages Of Single-Sex Education

The Hartford Courant, RUSSELL BLAIR, August 13, 2010

http://articles.courant.com/2010-08-13/news/hc-itowns-single-sex-0815-20100813_1_single-gender-school-public-schools-magnet-schools

No Endorsement Of Single-Sex Schools Given

The Hartford Courant, August 23, 2010

http://articles.courant.com/2010-08-23/news/hc-le-howe-single-sex-0821-20100823_1_title-ix-education-programs-and-activities-e-mails

Women Defend Single-sex Education

The Hartford Courant, By ROBERT A. FRAHM, March 23, 1998

http://articles.courant.com/1998-03-23/news/9803230145_1_single-sex-schools-coed-schools-coeducational-schools

EDUCATION; Boys Will Be Boys? Then Teach Them Separately, Perhaps

The Hartford Courant, By THOMAS KAPLAN, Published: March 23, 2008

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E2D91F30F930A15750C0A96E9C8B63 

Reform or Retrenchment: Single Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, Verna L. Williams
, University of Cincinnati College of Law

Single-Sex Education, The Connecticut Context, Technical Report, 2013

http://ctserc.org/docs/Single-Sex%20Education%20report%20SERC%202013.pdf

OLR Research Report, CT SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION PROGRAMS, December 5, 2006, Soncia Coleman, Associate Legislative Analyst

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0714.htm

Class Divide: Single-Sex Schoolrooms Take Off, Some Wary Of Growing Trend, But Advocates’ Fervor Is Catching, JIM FARRELL, June 12, 2007

http://www.hartfordinfo.org/issues/documents/Education/htfd_courant_061207.asp

Brookings Papers on Education Policy, Rosemary C. Salomone, Cornelius Riordan and Janice Weinman, 1999, Published by: Brookings Institution Press, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067210

 

Proposal How has education in correctional facilities changed since the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 in New York State?

Significance I believe Correctional Education is an important topic to education reform. Attaining an education provides an opportunity for success to inmates when they are released from prison. Without education the chance of recidivism is higher. Yet in 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act took away the right for prison inmates to receive a grant for higher education. I’m interested in researching the effects of the act on the educational system in prisons specifically in New York State.

Research Process I first went to the ED300 page on search strategies for sources to get myself headed in the right direction. After checking Wikipedia and the listed sources I went to Trinity’s word cat search engine. Under key terms I typed in “prison” “education” and “New York State”. I didn’t find any specific books that were significant to my particular proposal. I then did the same for Trinity’s narrower search engines. Through these search results I found particular sources in the bibliographies of sources less relevant to my specific topic. I also searched the New York Times’ database by using “prison education” in the search engine. Finally I searched specific sources such as the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 after learning of its significance to the topic through my other sources.

Sources

“Cornell Prison Education Program.” Cornell Prison Education Program. Cornell University. <http://cpep.cornell.edu/_Home>.

This source is the website for a program that offers classes through the volunteer efforts of Cornell University professors to inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility.

Erisman, Wendy, and Jeanne Bayer Contardo. “Learning to Reduce Recidivism.” (2005) The Institute for Higher Education Policy. Web. <http://www.ihep.org/assets/files/publications/g-l/LearningReduceRecidivism.pdf>.

This source analyzes post secondary education policy by state in correctional facilities.

“Fact Sheet: Educational and Vocational Programs in New York State Prisons.” Correctional Association of New York. The Correctional Association of New York, 2012-2013. Web. <http://www.correctionalassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fact-sheet-ed-voc-progs-2012.pdf>.

This fact sheet of Educational and Vocational Programs in New York State shares statistics that are in favor of education programs yet also exemplify the decrease in support.

Greenberg, Elizabeth, Eric Dunleavy, and Mark Kutner. Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey. 2007. Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey. National Center for Education Statistics. Web. <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007473.pdf>.

This source reports the results of English literacy of adults in prison for the first time since 1992.

Lewin, Tamar. “Inmate Education Is Found To Lower Risk of New Arrest.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2001. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/16/us/inmate-education-is-found-to-lower-risk-of-new-arrest.html>.

This source describes the benefits of education at correctional facilities.

Maher, Jane. “My Way Out of This Life Is An Education.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 32.1/2 (2004): 100-14. America: History and Life on the Web. Web. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=687879e0-ecaf-4d39-80c6ce082a06b701%40sessionmgr4&vid=3&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ahl&AN=14181662>.

This source discusses how the educational opportunities through the Women’s Prison Education Partnership helped the inmates at the New York State Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

Olian, Catherine, prod. “60 Minutes.” Maximum Security Education. CBS. New York, 15 Apr. 2007. Bpi.bard.edu. Bard College. Web. <http://bpi.bard.edu/60-minutes/>.

This segment of the 60 Minutes episode on Maximum Security Education reports on the Bard Prison Initiative from its program at the Eastern Correctional Facility in New York State.

Policy Statement 15: Education and Vocation Training. Rep. The Council of State Government Justice Center, Web. <http://www.reentrypolicy.org/Report/PartII/ChapterII-B/PolicyStatement15>.

This policy statement addresses the educational and vocational opportunities to inmates.

“Program Services-Education (Academics).” NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Web. <http://www.doccs.ny.gov/ProgramServices/academic.html>.

This source lists and explains the education programs available in the correctional facilities of New York State.

United States. Cong. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. 103d Cong., 2nd sess. Cong. Rept. H.R.3355. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1994.

This source is the “Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994”.

 Research Question: How did the enactment of Title IX change the academic and athletic experiences of both female and male student-athletes in colleges and universities?

Significance:  Women’s collegiate sports have progressed tremendously since the first nationally organized female collegiate competition in 1941.  The biggest advancement in women’s collegiate athletics since this time came in 1971 with the founding of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).  The AIAW, which prided itself in focusing on the “student” aspect of student-athletes, aimed to prevent unfair advantages in competition by allowing female athletes to transfer between schools and prohibiting athletic scholarships and off-campus recruiting.  The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), which strictly dealt with men’s athletics, tended to focus more on the “athlete” aspect of student-athlete and was often seen as commercially driven and known for awarding plenty of full scholarships.  In 1972 Title IX was passed, which is a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 stating “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance…” (OASAM).  Although this portion was not specifically aimed at fixing discrimination in athletics, Title IX became most known for and had one of the greatest effects on ending sexist inequity in sports.  Through Title IX, the NCAA eventually began offering championships to Division II and III female athletic teams in 1980, and to Division 1 teams in 1981, which marked the collapse of the AIAW and the NCAA takeover of women’s collegiate sports.

Title IX significantly impacted the experiences of female and male student-athletes on and off the field, mostly in a positive way but sometimes negatively.  My paper aims to answer the questions of what specific impacts Title IX had on collegiate athletics and academics, and how and why this affected both male and female collegiate student-athletes.  This topic has significance in relation to our Education 300 class because athletics are an integral part of many students’ educational and collegiate experiences.  Benefits of playing sports include growing leadership skills, increasing health and self-esteem, and adapting more responsible social behavior, which all lead to higher academic performance.  This topic is especially meaningful to me because I am a varsity college athlete here at Trinity, and I have reaped many of the benefits of playing sports throughout my whole life, especially during my college years.  As a female, without the passing of Title IX, I might never have had the opportunity as a collegiate athlete.  Playing on the volleyball team at Trinity has helped me in many aspects of my academic and social or personal life throughout college.    I think it is important to research the question of how Title IX has already impacted the experiences of student-athletes in order to continue changing inequalities in this venue.

Research Strategy:  I started my search for sources by using a general Google search under phrases like “first female collegiate athletics”, “Title IX”, and “the effects of Title IX in collegiate sports”.  These searches lead me to Wikipedia, and under Wikipedia’s sources section I was able to find a couple of relevant and useful sources.  I also used the Trinity library homepage, and under the tab “Articles” I searched by database title and chose “Education Full Text”, then hit “Go” and typed in “Title IX”.  This search provided many useful sources from which I chose a few to use.  Searching “Title IX” AND “college” was also helpful because many of the sources from the original search targeted high school athletics and academics.

Sources:

Haglund, Eric. 2005. “Staring Down the Elephant: College Football and Title IX Compliance.” Journal Of Law & Education 34, no. 3: 439-452. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Hardy, Lawrence. 2012. “The Legacy of Title IX.” American School Board Journal 199, no. 8: 12-15. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Kilman, Carrie. “Beyond the Playing Field.” Teaching Tolerance no. 42 (Fall2012 2012): 29-33. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Lancaster, Michael . “Title IX And Its Effect On College Athletic Programs..” College Athletic Scholarships. College Scouting And Recruiting.. Web. 29 Oct. 2010. <http://www.athleticscholarships.net/title-ix-college-athletics.htm>.

McKeon, Michael. 2012. “The Law That’s Title IX.” American School Board Journal 199, no. 8: 17-19. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Siegel, D. “The Union of Athletics with Educational Institutions,” Athletics and Education. <http://www.science.smith.edu/exer_sci/ESS200/Ed/Athletic.htm>

Suggs, Welch. 2003. “U.S. commission on Title IX calls for protecting men’s teams.” Chronicle Of Higher Education 49, no. 25: A40. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Vest, Becky, and Gerald Masterson. 2007. “Title IX and Its Effect on Sports Programs in High School and Collegiate Athletics.” Coach & Athletic Director 77, no. 5: 60-62. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2013).

Question: How do alternative routes to teaching, like Teach For America, compare to elementary teacher licensing requirements in terms of preparation?

Relevance: Teacher preparation and requirements have changed over time to address students with different needs, such as special education and language barriers. As the pool of applicants to teach has decreased, alternative routes to teaching increased in popularity. Looking through the alternative routes on the Trinity Educational Studies website, private school teaching and Teach for America stand out to me. I decided to look into Teach for America and their process of training or certifying teachers. Over the summer, I did research on teacher preparation programs and the specific college courses offered and required. With this project, I hope to look at licensing requirements in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York in comparison with the Teach for America programs in those areas. I chose those states by region in the country and as places where Teach for America has placements.

Research Strategy: I started at the Teach for America website, looking for their training and requirements pages. In terms of state licensing requirements, I used google to find state Departments of Education websites. I think it would be useful to try to contact Teach for America graduates and participants if possible. This may require a change in which states I look at. I used the library databases on Education (Education Text) to find some articles on Teach for America training.

Primary Sources:

“Training and Support” (2013). Teach For America. Americorps. Retrieved from http://www.teachforamerica.org/.

“Pre-corps training begins with a regional induction that takes place the week before the summer training institute. Institute is an intensive five-week training program that prepares corps members for their teaching experience. Summer training concludes with a regional orientation.”

“Licensure Academic (PreK – 12).” (2011). Massachusetts Government. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Retrieved from http://www.doe.mass.edu/Educators/e_license.html?section=k12.

“Obtaining Connecticut Educator Certification.” (2013). Connecticut Government. State Department of Education Connecticut. Retrieved from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/cert/obtaining1109aw.pdf

This pdf is helpful and clear in the requirements for licensing.

“Certification from Start to Finish” (2013). New York State Education Department. Office of Teaching Initiatives. http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/certificate/certprocess.html

Secondary Sources:

Harding, H. (2012). Teach for America: Leading for Change. Educational Leadership,69(8), 58-61.

This article has history of TFA and “How Training Works.”

Veltri, B. (2012). Teach for America: It’s More About Leading Than Teaching. Educational Leadership, 69(8), 62-65.

This article discusses the effective of TFA training. This article reports TFA teachers desire to have more training about child development and more experienced trainers.

Hopkins, M. (2008). Training The Next Teachers For America: A Proposal for Reconceptualizing Teach for America. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(10), 721-725.

A TFA alum discusses how she felt unprepared for teaching. The five-week program did not feel sufficient to her, so she proposes a change.

Research Question:

How did advocates of the Morrill Land Grant Act envision its goals in the 1860s, and how have historians interpreted its outcomes over a century later?

Relevance:

2012 marked the 150^th anniversary of the Morrill Land Grant Act prompting many historians, policy makers, education reformers and higher education administrators to reflect upon the role and mission of Land Grant Institutions which explicitly were aimed at creating non-elite colleges where members of the working classes could obtain a practical and liberal education. The Morrill Act gave federal land to fund colleges in each state with the distinct purpose of

without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.

At the time the Act was established farmers were the majority of the nation but now they constitute less than two percent of the United States labor force. As our population has become urbanized and suburbanized and as our workforce has become corporatized and industrialized have these institutions changed their mission in remaining the “people’s universities”? Is it necessary for them to revisit their original purpose? How do land grant universities fit into our new technology dependent global society? Funding for these universities is declining and on its sesquicentennial anniversary and moving forward land grant universities are reevaluating their futures, but to look forward, one must first look back.

Research Process:

While researching the role of higher education in civic engagement and civic education for a project last year I kept coming across mentions of the Morrill Land Grant Act.  I knew very little about the Act and the impact it had on education and society as a whole. During the course of this project I learned the bare minimum about the Act primarily from Wikipedia. I have continued to wonder though about the Morrill Act though and how it fits into today’s educational funding debates. This research project thus felt like the perfect opportunity to further my inquiry into this topic. The first thing I did was email some sample questions to the Professor to see if I was heading down the right track for this assignment. Fortunately for me, he sent back an email response with more sources then I possibly could have ever needed related to the Morrill Land Grant Act. http://history.msstate.edu/MorrillActWebSite/resources.html  Before beginning to sift through this site though I felt looking at the language of the original Act itself would be beneficial. Through a Google search I was able to find a scanned version of the original statute for both the 1862 and 1890 Act. Once I had read those I began the task of looking through the resources cited on the website offered by Jack. I began narrowing them down initially by the ones I had access to through Trinity and then I skimmed through the abstracts to see which were historical depictions of the Act. I then did a WorldCat search for “Morrill Land Grant Act”, “Morrill Land Grant Act” and “History”, and finally “Morrill Land Grant Act” and “150^th anniversary”. I was able to find a substantial amount of relevant articles through these searches, I read a few and found the piece by Alperovitz and Howard to be particularly helpful so I looked at the bibliography for this article and was able to locate some of the pieces they cited. At this point I perhaps have too many sources. I am glad that I have a variety though- books, studies and editorial pieces. I have found that as a thesis and draft begin to come together some sources eliminate themselves and a need for further sources may arise naturally, but I feel confident with the initial list I am offering in this proposal.

Bibliography:

Primary Sources-

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, United States Statutes at Large 504 § 130-4 (1862). Print.

“1890act.pdf.” Accessed April 4, 2013. http://www.history.msstate.edu/MorrillActWebSite/1890act.pdf.

Secondary Sources-

Alperovitz, Gar, and Ted Howard. “The Next Wave: Building a University Civic Engagement Service for the Twenty-First Century.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 10, no. 2 (2005): 141–157.

Cross, Coy F., Justin Smith Morrill: Father of the Land-Grant Colleges. East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 1998.
Dailey, Christie. “Implementation of the Land-Grant Philosophy during the Early Years at Iowa Agricultural College, 1859-1890.” M.A. thesis, Iowa State University, 1982.

Eddy, Jr., Edward D. Colleges for Our Land and Time: The Land-Grant Idea in American Education (New York: Harper, 1957).

Geiger, Roger L. To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research universities, 1900-1940 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).

Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities.1996. Taking charge of change: Renewing the promise of state and land-grant universities. Washington, D.C.: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities.1999. Returning to our roots: The engaged institution. Washington, DC.: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities.2000. Renewing the covenant: Learning, discovery, and engagement in  a new age and different world. Washington, D.C.: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Key, Scott. “Economics or Education: The Establishment of American Land-Grant Universities,” Journal of Higher Education 67(March-April 1996).

Levine, Arthur. “The Soul of a New University,” Op Ed, New York Times (March 2000).

Marcus, Alan I., “”If All the World Were Mechanics and Farmers: American Democracy and the Formative Years of Land-Grant Colleges.” Ohio Valley History (5/1), Spring 2005: 23-37.

Pates, Mikkel. “150th Anniversary of the Morrill Act.” AG Week, June 18, 2012. http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/19883/.

Ross, Earle D., Democracy’s College: The Land-Grant Movement in the Formative State (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1942; New York: Arno Press, 1976).

Wechsler, Harold S., Lester F. Goodchild, and Linda Eisenmann, eds. The History of Higher Education. 3rd ed. Pearson Custom Pub, 2008.

Research Question: How have African American Educators Saved My City?

Relevance:  Over the past decade the New Haven Public Schools have been hiring more African American workers to be placed in the schools. Whether it consists of giving administrative positions to African Americans or hiring black athletic coaches, there is a noticeable difference in the increase in high school graduation rate and a decrease in murder rate. For long New Haven has been known as the “murder capital” of Connecticut and at one point was considered one of the most dangerous cities to live in throughout the entire country. Personally, I have always felt safe being a resident in the inner city, however there are some who have the fear of being shot at on the way to school in the morning. Growing up in a home where my father is a high school principal, I hear it all the time about “how he changed those kids’ lives” or “how he got this group of students off of the streets and helped them find jobs.” Having an African American leader within an urban school can ultimately change the learning culture. Seeing a men and women of color in the hallways motivates students to want to graduate; they want to “be like Mr. Jones when they grow up” because he has a nice house, drives a nice car, and has a family, and guess what? He isn’t white. “Making it out of the hood” and then ultimately giving back is what these African American educators have done for the City of New Haven. Through my research I hope to display how African American educators’ presence helped changed the struggling lives of the youth in New Haven. Also, to show how that has impacted the degree of violence within the city and how more seniors are graduating high school and going to college.

Research Process: Initially, I thought my research process would be easy. Since I live in New Haven I can just look in the local newspaper to find instances of how African American educators benefit the community. I figured I wouldn’t have to search everywhere around the web, or try to find many books in the library, or even search a bunch of databases. The first step I took was visited the New Haven Register website and search for “principals”. Many options came up. I scrolled down for a few minutes and nothing I was really looking for came up. Then I added “New Haven principals”. Once many articles popped up that seemed relevant, I thought I was finished. After clicking on a few, they didn’t really give me much. Because I know many of the teachers and principals in the high schools I decided to type their names in in the search bar. I actually found a lot of decent articles that would help. I needed sources from another website though. New Haven Independent, an online newspaper, covers stories in all of the sections in New Haven. Done by local writers, their stories are never biased so I knew that this is what I needed. I found a bunch of sources on graduation rate, crime rate, different articles on the hiring of multicultural administrators, and programs led by educators that help “clean up” the city. With the assistance of both newspapers I felt that they provided me with enough sources to help me find good research. They also provided links to other websites which will allow me to go deeper into to what I am specifically looking for.

Bibliography:

“23% Of HS Grads Finished College Within 6 Years  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/23_high_school_grads_finish_college_in_6_years/.

• This article shows the college graduation rate of New Haven high school graduates.

“40 Black Men Take The ‘Kiyama’ Pledge  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d.   http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/kiyama/.

• This article shows how Wilbur Cross Assistant Principal Larry Conaway, and Hamden High School Principal Gary Highsmith help by delivering their message during the Kiyama Pledge.

“Can Newhallville Become A ‘Promise Land’?  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/promise_land/.

• This article shows how “that the group’s main objective is to reduce crime by reaching out to the families and young people with a “don’t shoot” message”

“Four New Principals Named  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/four_new_principals_named/.

• This article shows the hiring of new principals in New Haven public schools, half of them being multicultural

“Hillhouse Stars Honored  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/champs_recognized/.

• This article show African American student athletes succeeding in school and in the playing field.

“Hyde Leadership Academy Using Grant Money to Offer New Health Science Classes.” New Haven Register – Serving New Haven, CT, n.d. http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/01/07/news/new_haven/doc4f08f2043de9f869153338.txt.

• This article shows how Principal John Russell “seeks to incorporate lessons on health-related topics into subjects like reading, math and social studies and add a class on African-American history which highlights health care issues for the black community.”

“Kiyama Movement Plans Community Program Wednesday in New Haven.” New Haven Register – Serving New Haven, CT, n.d. http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/06/26/news/new_haven/doc4fea6c65e6c57826611638.txt?viewmode=fullstory.

• This article shows The Kiyama Movement which “recognizes teachers as essential components of the educational process, but notes the most important components are parents, students and the broader community where students live and play”

“‘Tough’ Talk  |  New Haven Independent.” New Haven Independent, n.d. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/tough_talk/.

• This article shows “that times are tough in New Haven, but not to worry, because the Black and Hispanic caucus is “tough and it is moving.”

 

 

Research Question:

According to Fred Hess, education reform and reformers have been applying the same reform styles to improve the education system, meaning that they have been doing the same thing over and over again. How do President Bush’s bill No Child Left Behind and President Obama’s program Race to the Top either confirm or challenge Fred Hess’s opinion?

Relevance:

Fred Hess is challenging the effectiveness of educational reformers and their reforms. By analyzing the actual legislation of No Child Left Behind and the program details of Race to the Top as well as the internal congressional discussions, it will be apparent whether or not he is accurate. If Fred Hess is right, then our government needs to seriously revamp their logic and reforms. However, if Fred Hess is wrong, it may be that the public is too critical of the government and their efforts to reform schools. The answer to this question is extremely relevant because it needs to be answered correctly in order to insure progress is being made for education reform.

Research Process:

Initially, I met with Katy Hart, the librarian, to help me find some sources. However, I did not have a focused enough question in order for that to be the most productive. As a result, I decided that I needed to meet with you. With your help, you gave me Patrick McQuinn’s book on No Child Left Behind, which help lead me to other secondary sources, another written by him as well. Furthermore, through the perspective of Fred Hess I felt it was appropriate to have full access to his book The Same Thing Over and Over. In order to receive some summary of what was happening in Congress in regards to these two pieces of legislation I researched New York Times articles and found plenty. Additionally, I searched through the Congressional Records database on the library website and found a sufficient amount of sources for No Child Left Behind. However, personally, I struggled to find congressional records in regards to Race to the Top. In order to solve this dilemma I met with Katy Hart again and she was extremely helpful. From there, I found more than enough dialogue and discussion within Congress in regards to No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

Bibliography:

Alvarez, Lizette. “House Votes for New Testing to Hold Schools Accountable.” New York Times, May 24, 2011.

 

Brown, Cynthia G., Hess, Frederick M., Lautzenheiser, Daniel K., and Owen, Isabel. “State Education Agencies as Agents of Change: What It Will Take for the States to Step Up on Education Reform.” Center for American Progress. July 2011.

 

This report “will provide the basis for a complete re-examination of the role of state education agencies and their chiefs in transforming the SEA into an agent of change that can assist districts in the crucial task of remaking our public schools to meet the needs of our children in the 21^st century.”[1]

 

Dillon, Sam. “Dangling $4.3 Billion, Obama Pushes States to Shift on Education.” New York Times, August 17, 2009.

 

Hess, Frederick M. The Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday’s Ideas. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010.

 

Hess, Frederick M., Petrilli, Michael J. and West, Martin R. “Taking Stock of a Decade of Reform: Pyrrhic Victories?” Education Next11 no. 2 (Spring 2011): 58-65.

 

House of Representatives, United States Congress. Challenges to American Competitiveness in Math and Science, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on 21^st Century Competitiveness of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Hundred Ninth Congress, First Session, May 19, 2005. 109^th Cong. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.

 

House of Representatives, United States Congress. Implementation of No Child Left Behind Act, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Education and the Workforce, One Hundred Seventh Congress, Second Session, July 24, 2002. 107^th Cong. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2002.

 

House of Representatives, United States Congress. Strengthening America’s Competitiveness Through Common Academic Standards, Hearing Before the Committee on Education and Labor, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, April 29, 2009. 111^th Cong. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009.

 

House of Representatives, United States Congress. The Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools, Hearing Before the Committee on Education and Labor, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, June 16, 2009. 111^th Cong. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009.

 

House of Representatives, United States Congress. The Obama Administration’s Education Agenda, Hearing Before the Committee on Education and Labor, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, May 20, 2009. 111^th Cong. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009.

 

McGuinn, Patrick. No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965-2005.” St. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

 

McGuinn, Patrick. “Stimulating Reform: Race to the Top, Competitive Grants and the Obama Education Agenda.” Educational Policy (November 28, 2011), 136-159.

 

“This article offers an analysis of the origins, evolution, and impact of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant program and places it in the broader context of the debate over the No Child Left Behind Act and the shifting intergovernmental relations around education.”[2]

 

Schemo, Diana Jean. “Bush Seems to Ease His Stance on the Accountability of Schools: Favors Senate Bill Over a Stricter House Version.” New York Times, July 10, 2001.

 

Tanner, Daniel. “Race to the top and leave the children behind.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 45, no. 1 (February 15, 2013): 4-15.

 

Tracks the education reform movement from President George H. W. Bush to President Obama and more specifically the charter school movement, “The modern movement for charter schools was advocated by President George H.W. Bush in America 2000, issued in 1991, and subsequently expanded in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed by President George W. Bush. The charter school movement, coupled with nationalized testing, was to gain great momentum under President Barack Obama in Race to the Top––raising a clear and present danger of splitting up the school system.”[3]

 

 

 

Research Question: How has diversifying the teaching workforce in the past 13 years (2000-2013) changed and affected inner-city public schools and its students?

Relevance: Today, in an attempt to diversify the workforce and close the achievement gap, schools have hired teachers of diverse backgrounds to teach their “inner-city” students. Despite the large amounts of people who participate as advocators for educational equality, there seems to be little nationwide progress. As a former public school student, I noticed that many teachers who attempted to connect with their students failed despite of their ability and passion to teach. School administrators have chimed in and realized that hiring teachers of diverse backgrounds allows for better communication and ultimately success in the classroom. Given the little, but increasing size of the multicultural teacher workforce, it is important to understand the reasoning why there are such low numbers of diverse females and males that are interested in the educational field. It is also important to recognize whether placing a teacher of color in an urban school would be beneficial to the students. Through my research I hope to demonstrate how teachers of color can be helpful or hiding to inner-city schools and it’s students. Ultimately, I would like to learn how the presence of a teacher of color ultimately shapes an inner-city student’s schooling experience and education.

Finding Resources: The first step I took in order to find resources on this topic was to visit Professor Dougherty’s Educ 300: Education Reform, Past and Present blog, in a section that is categorized under: Search strategies for sources in Ed Reform: Past & Present. Under this post, I found a variety of search engines and links to databases where I gathered most, if not all of the pieces I will be using in my research. I used Google Scholar and typed in the words “diversification of higher education and the academic profession” and “recruitment of diverse teachers.” Through these searches, I was able to find several journals including, The Collaborative Recruitment of Diverse Teachers for the Long Haul, The Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers in Gifted Education, and Teach for America: The Latinization of U.S. schools and the critical shortage of Latina/o Teachers. I also was able to use ERIC, and through ERIC I was linked to the journal published through Brown University- Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention. By looking through articles on ERIC, I stumbled upon Sage Journals, a journal database that also helped me identify some key research articles. Although I have collected a fair share of resources, I would like to meet with a librarian sometime next week in order to make sure I am collecting articles specific to my topic.

 

Bibliography:

Achinstein, B., R. T. Ogawa, D. Sexton, and C. Freitas. “Retaining Teachers of Color: A Pressing Problem and a Potential Strategy for “Hard-to-Staff” Schools.” Review of Educational Research 80.1 (2010): 71-107. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://rer.sagepub.com/content/80/1/71.full.pdf>.

• This article emphasizes the important of diversifying the teaching workforce and why this task has not been easy. It studies the factors that influence teacher of color retention rates and practices teachers of color execute in the classroom.

Fernandez, Mary R., and Marci Nunez. “Collaborative Recruitment of Diverse Teachers for the Long Haul–TEAMS: Teacher Education for the Advancement of a Multicultural Society.” Multicultural Education 14.2 (2006): 50-56. <Http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ759652.pdf>. Web. 4. Apr. 2013

• This journal article discusses why Urban schools hire teachers that are not adequate/well trained to teach poor urban students. They shed light on the TEAMS program which recruits and prepares teachers to teach in urban school settings.

Ford, Donna Y., Tarek C. Grantham, and J. John Harris. “The Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers in Gifted Education.” Roeper Review 19.4 (1997): 213-20. Tandfond Online. Routledge. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02783199709553832>.

• This article demonstrates how minority teachers in gifted education are recruited and trained to teach this specific group of students.

Furman, Jim S. “Tensions in Multicultural Teacher Education Research: Demographics and the Need to Demonstrate Effectiveness.” Education and Urban Society 41.1 (2008): 55-79. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://eus.sagepub.com/content/41/1/55.full.pdf+html>.

• This article discusses data-based research on studies that have been conducted about diverse teacher education. It brings to light the issues of multiculturalism in the classroom and how the hidden curriculum affects it.

Gordon, June A. Why Did You Select Teaching as a Career?: Teachers of Color Tell Their Stories. Rep. N.p.: n.p., 1993. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED383653. ERIC. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED383653.pdf>.

• This paper reflects on three interviews that were conducted in urban school districts. It reflects on reoccurring themes that were noticed throughout the research regarding minority teachers in urban school settings: What served as their motivation to teach?

Izarry, Jason, and Morgaen L. Donaldson. “Teach For America: The Latinization of U.S. Schools and the Critical Shortage of Latina/o Teachers.” American Educational Research Journal 49.1 (2013): 155-94. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://aer.sagepub.com/content/49/1/155.full.pdf+html>.

• This article argues that the teaching profession must be diversified in order to accommodate the increasing multicultural student population and describe factors that influence the amount of minority teachers that are recruited per year.

Sleeter, C. E. “Preparing Teachers for Culturally Diverse Schools: Research and the Overwhelming Presence of Whiteness.” Journal of Teacher Education 52.2 (2001): 94-106. Web. 4 Apr. 2013 <http://jte.sagepub.com/content/52/2/94.full.pdf+html>.

• This article focuses on “addressing the attitudes and lack of knowledge of White preservice students.” The article addresses how to address the problem of the abundance of white teachers, and why that has become a problem in multicultural schools.

Torres, Judith, Janet Santos, Nancy L. Peck, and Lydia Cortes. “Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention.” Ed. Kristin Latina and Jessica Swedlow. The Educational Alliance (2004): n. pag. Alliance At Brown University. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/minority_teacher/minteachrcrt.pdf>.

• This article provides statistical evidence on how placing multicultural teachers in Urban School settings can possibly help low income students to succeed.

Villegas, Ana María, and Tamara F. Lucas. “Diversifying the Teacher Workforce: A Retrospective and Prospective Analysis.” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 103.1 (2004): 70-104. ERIC. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.

• This chapter that is part of a book argues that the educational workforce should be diversified. Authors explain that schools need to train their teachers and reflect on the statistical factors that show the small amount of Diversity in the workforce.

 

 

 

Research Question: Has competition increased for entrance into top elite pre-schools in New York City, and why?

Relevance/Why it Deserves to Be Researched: How did we get to the point where competition for preschools is the norm? I have consistently questioned this ever since I had asked my mom why in the world we had moved from lively, wonder-filled New York City to that of a boring, seemingly bleak suburb in Fairfield county. After her grocery list of  mundane reasons, she blurted out that she could not get my brother into a decent preschool. Now, this response came to me as a complete and utter shock considering my brother was at that time pursuing his undergraduate degree at Tufts University. I remember chuckling to myself at the time that my seemingly “prodigy-esque” scholarly brother was incapable of passing a test that probably entailed differentiating colors from one another and the proper technique of finger painting. Granted, I was unable to grasp the reality of the situation at hand and what was occurring in education reform around the United States.

I have read various accounts of concerned parents and their experiences with this frantic (and many would argue, ludicrous) registration process for pre-kindergarten schools in New York City. What has caused parents/guardians of New York City to go through such extreme lengths to secure a spot for their children in a prestigious pre-kindergarten program? Could it be simply accredited to the fact that the NYC school system is ill-equipped in its ability to tend  to the educational needs of the volume of children within the five boroughs? Or could it be accredited to the belief that these pre-k schools will better a child’s academic success in the years to come?

Regardless of the cause, it is undeniable that the preschool application process has become cutthroat and incredibly heated in New York City. The admission process has escalated to the point where observed play sessions, interviews, parent-written essays and profiles of children have become a part of the application norm in many of the most elite preschools in New York City and other parts of the world.

How I Searched For Primary and Secondary Sources: To begin, I simply typed into the Google search engine “preschools in New York City” where I was immediately greeted with hundreds of thousands of hits. I found one website in particular (http://mommypoppins.com/nyc-preschools) to be completely intriguing where it provided me with a sort of database to search the best schools in my general area. That said I plan to revisit the website later on to discuss how elaborate, time-consuming, and confusing the entire application process actually is. I wished to narrow it down with adding “Competition preschools in NYC” and found a wide range of sources—ranging from blogs to discussion boards, all the way to New York Times articles. Most of these articles were about the competition that has arisen for the most elite private preschools in New York City and the havoc that has come to engulf the application process.

I then acknowledged the fact that I needed something of more substance and began my search for books. I know for certain that I will read some chapters of Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough for some of the studies conducted about the importance of a pre-kindergarten education in a child’s life and determine if and how these studies may have played an important factor in the competition that has arisen for preschools.

Furthermore, I searched “JStor” for scholarly articles written and studies conducted that explored the benefits and impacts of a quality preschool education. I stumbled upon various articles written by prominent scholars in the education field (listed below in the bibliography). In my opinion, “JStor” is an incredibly effective search engine in that most materials posted there are legitimate and credible.

 Bibliography: 

Anderson, Jenny. “At Elite New York Schools, Admissions Policies Are Evolving.” The New York Times, September 5, 2011, sec. N.Y. / Region. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/nyregion/at-elite-new-york-schools-admissions-policies-are-evolving.html.

This New York Times Article provided great insight into Trinity, one of New York’s top pre-schools where the acceptance rate of 2.4% for those families who have no ties to Trinity,  joking that getting into Harvard that has an acceptance rate of 6.2% look “easy.” This article discusses the importance of legacies and siblings—a factor I previously only associated with high school and college admissions.

Barnett, W. Steven. “Benefits of Compensatory Preschool Education.” The Journal of Human Resources 27, no. 2 (April 1, 1992): 279–312. doi:10.2307/145736.

Belkin, Lisa. “Competition for Preschool.” Accessed April 2, 2013. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/competition-for-preschool/.

“Competition for Preschool the Fiercest Yet – College Confidential.” Accessed April 2, 2013. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/153274-competition-preschool-fiercest-yet.html.

A comment that really stood out to me in particular, which was posted by member “Roshke” on March 3, 2006 at 2:23 p.m: “This article just about blew my mind. Safeties for preschools?? Thick and thin envelopes expected next week?? Essays for 18 month olds?? I kid you not, in NYC they now have seminars dedicated to “idea starters” for preschool application essays. And a sought after school consultant there claims that it is impossible to overstate the importance of the essay in determining, what else, demonstrated interest!!!!!!! And the icing on the cake had to be, are you ready for this…….an EARLY DECISION option – for PRESCHOOLERs!!!! What is this world coming to? I’m (almost) speechless.”

I feel as though this discussion board in particular will really provide me with great personal accounts and feedback on the issue at hand, which will in effect add that extra voice I need for my research paper. I understand that this is not an incredibly valid website, but it does provide me with some insight into the public’s mindset and reactions.

Karoly, Lynn A. Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California. 1st ed. RAND Corporation, 2009.

Saulny, Susan. “In Baby Boomlet, Preschool Derby Is the Fiercest Yet.” The New York Times, March 3, 2006, sec. Education. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/education/03preschool.html.

This New York Times article provides astounding statistics about the “baby boom” that has occurred in families and in part explains why the competition has escalated to such a high degree. It explains that “In 1995, there were 3,707 twin births in all the boroughs; in 2003, there were 4,153; and in 2004, there were 4,655. Triplet births have also risen, from 60 in 1995, to 299 in 2004. Because preschools strive for gender and age balance in generally small classes — and also, some parents suspect, as many potential parental donors as possible — it is harder to get multiple slots in one class” (Saunly).

“Think Applying to University Is Tough?  Try Applying to Preschool in NYC.” ParentDish. Accessed April 2, 2013. http://www.parentdish.com/2006/03/06/think-applying-to-university-is-tough-try-applying-to-preschoo/.

NPR Staff. “N.Y. Preschool Starts DNA Testing For Admission : NPR.” NPR.org. Accessed April 2, 2013. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/01/149804404/n-y-preschool-starts-dna-testing-for-admission.

This article I found to be most startling. This was done as an April Fool’s Day prank by a radio host claiming that a new prestigious school was opening, which actually required students to take DNA tests to determine his or her admission. Allegedly this article stirred up so much chaos people were calling the radio show asking immediately where to send the applications and where the DNA tests could be performed. This joke and the parents’ reactions to said joke reiterated the fierce competition that engulfs the admission process of these top pre-schools in New York City.

Palacios, Kim. From Preschool to Grad School: Strategies for Success at Any Level of Competitive Admissions. Luxe Publishing, 2012.

A book that provides the admissions fundamentals needed for the top pre-school all the way to the top grad school. The author claims that these fundamentals are the same—regardless of the age of the student or the level of education.

Wana, Jenifer. How to Choose the Best Preschool for Your Child: The Ultimate Guide to Finding, Getting Into, and Preparing for Nursery School. Sourcebooks, 2010.

This book is a step-by-step guide for parents to choose and get their respective children into the right preschool—from schools that enroll essentially every child to competitive preschools that only accept a few applicants. I am interested to see what the book suggests for those parents looking to enroll their children into these competitive schools.

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