The Achievement Gap – Is Our Educational Perspective Part of The Solution or Part of The Problem?
February 23, 2010
The Piton Foundation produced a narrative called The Achievement Gap – Colorado’s Biggest Educational Problem, which stated:
“Research has repeatedly demonstrated the link between a student’s economic background and academic performance. Children from poor families perform worse than those from more affluent backgrounds. Poverty is strongly tied to race and ethnicity, so frequently schools with large proportion of minority students are also predominately low-income. And when low-income children attend schools where almost every other student is also from a poor family, the negative impact on performance is even more pronounced.”
Is it possible that students from low-income families feel “less than” or not “as smart” as students whose families are self-sufficient?
The inner creates the outer and it is our job as educators to ensure that students develop an awareness that does not allow their outer circumstances to dictate their inner world.
What follows is an article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on 2/19/10, which indicates a relationship between the achievement gap and a student’s state of mind that can be managed with the proper leadership.
Placebos: It’s Mind Not Matter
By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer
LONDON (AP) – When it comes to the placebo effect, it really may be mind over matter, a new analysis suggests.
In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body.
The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient’s brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal.
“It’s not that placebos or inert substances help,” said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. “It’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.”
While doctors have long recognized that placebos can help patients feel better, they weren’t sure if the treatments sparked any physical changes.
In the Lancet review, researchers cite studies where patients with Parkinson’s disease were given dummy pills. That led their brains to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical, and also resulted in other changes in brain activity.
“When you think you’re going to get a drug that helps, your brain reacts as if it’s getting relief,” said Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown and Tufts University. “But we don’t know how that thought that you’re going to get better actually translates into something happening in the brain.”
The “Pen Man” Earns Respect From His Students By Giving It
February 10, 2010
This article appeared in AARP’s January/February 2010 Bulletin.
“You’d think that Indianapolis teacher Dan Stroup would have major writer’s cramp by now. That’s because every past and present student of his eighth-grade Bible class receives a personal, handwritten birthday letter from him every year. “I want them to know that I not only cared about them in the classroom, but outside the classroom,” says Stroup, 54, who teaches at Heritage Christian School. Stroup figures he’s penned about 33,000 letters to 2,500 students over 25 years, using regular pens and tablets of lined paper. “If students know I care about them, they’re more open to what I teach,” he says.”
State School Reform: ‘It’s the Teaching Stupid’
December 24, 2009
What follows are excerpts from an article appearing on December 23, 2009, in the San Jose Mercury News that was written by two San Jose State University professors, B. Kumaravadivelu and Revathi Krishnaswamy.
As the California legislative battle lines are drawn over school reform, and as attempts are being made to put the state on track to Race to the Top by seeking its share of the $4.3 billion federal fund, what seems to be sorely missing is any informed discussion on the strategy to improve teaching.
Our public school systems are blessed with well-conceived curricula, textbooks and constructed tests. The weakest link in this educational chain is classroom teaching.
Our conversation with teachers, parents and students associated with top public schools in the South Bay reveal a clear pattern: They are all concerned about what actually happens in the classroom.
Burdened with large classes, limited resources and loathsome paperwork, teachers are not able to give their full attention to teaching. They spend a substantial amount of class time conducting test, with little time left for giving students sufficient practice or feedback. They bitterly complain that in a system where only test scores matter, teaching takes a back seat.
If we are serious about improving instruction in our public schools, we need to devise an effective in-service program that will help teachers develop the knowledge and skill necessary to observe, analyze and evaluate their own teaching.
California can compete more effectively for top dollars by articulating a comprehensive strategy for teachers to improve their everyday practice of teaching. As legislators and negotiators wrangle over parental freedom, charger schools, accountability and other issues, they should remind themselves, “It’s the teaching, stupid.”
Study: Poor Kids Likelier to Get Antipsychotics
December 13, 2009
“Research suggests many kids get powerful drugs they do not need,” says Duff Wilson of the New York Times.
Below are excerpts from his article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on 12/12/09.
“New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: Children covered by Medicaid are given powerful anti-psychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. Finding from a Rutgers and Columbia team is almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them, but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children?
Part of the reason is insurance reimbursements. Medicaid often pays much less for counseling and therapy than private insureers do. Families who are financially challenged are less likely to attend these sessions than their counter-part even when such sessions are available.”
Many Are Unfit to Fight
November 22, 2009
What follows is a well-placed dire warning, written by Rick Montgomery of the Kansas City Star.
“Chalk up another national-security threat - this one looming with each excess pound, failing grade and drug bust affecting young adults.
An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report from Mission: Readiness, an organization of education and military leaders calling for immediate action on the education front.
The report, entitled, “Ready, Willing and Unale to Serve” was endorsed by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former NATO commander General Wesley Clark and other top retired admirals and generals.
Rear Admiral, James Barnett said, “Our national security in the year 2030 is absolutely dependent on what’s going on in kindergarten today.”
Military recruiters in Kansas city report turning away prospective recruits “in every office, every hour, every day for reasons including girths too large and credit rating too low. Increasingly, applicants are disqualified for having asthma or taking pills for depression or attention disorders. Nearly one-third of all young adults have health issues other than weight that could keep them from serving, says the report.”
Caring Coaches Can Transform Young People’s Lives
November 21, 2009
What follows is an excerpt from an article appearing in the San Jose Mercury News on 11/9/09, written by Tara Vanderveer (head coach of the woman’s basketball at Standford University) and Joann Boyle (who is her counterpart at UC Berkeley.)
“We’re joining together – along with many other coaches around the country, including Mike Singletary, Pete Carroll, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa – to recruit college students to work as volunteer coaches for kids in low-income communities.
We’re doing this because we have seen the transformation impact of engaged, caring coaches on the lives of young people. The greatest reward we’ve enjoyed as coaches has been witnessing the growth of our players into confident, focused and thoughtful young adults. Every good coach has watched a player experience that “aha” moment when he or she discovers some previously untapped quality within – selflessness, perhaps, or perseverance or courage.
We believe every child ought to have that experience.”
And rightly so. Developing the ”spirit” should be an integral part of every class. Teachers who encourage curiosity and enthusiasm know that academic champions are born out of this transformative energy.