I'm quoted in the story below regarding reform issues in Broward County, Florida.
-Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/sfl-four-day-school-week-b041909.ar0sbapr19,0,1623486.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
School budget cuts: Broward considers switch to four-day weeks
Broward considering switch to save money, but students could have too much free time
By Akilah Johnson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 19, 2009
Two Pompano Beach High students sat in their Web design class, adjusting images, picking background colors and wondering what Broward County would look like if every public high school went to the four-day schedule they already have.
"That's a lot of high school students out on Fridays," junior Khamisha Remikie said of the more than 70,200 teens whose weeks could be Friday-free if the Broward County School Board shuts all district high schools one day a week to save money, as members are considering.
Similar discussions are being held in the halls of the state Capitol as lawmakers look for ways to help districts meet budget shortfalls by allowing county school systems the flexibility to shorten school weeks. But some school officials, including those in Palm Beach County, are leery of the plan, which they say sounds good in theory but could be a logistical nightmare.
The abbreviated schedule works at Pompano Beach High, — Florida's only public high school with a four-day school week.
Shorter weeks mean longer days and classes that last nearly two hours, concessions Pompano Beach students say they are more than willing to make for the privilege of a three-day weekend. School starts at 7:05 a.m. and ends at 3:05 p.m.
"We had 45-minute classes because of FCAT, and we didn't do anything," sophomore Stephanie Zielinska said as she added text to her Jacqueline Kennedy Web page. "By the time you get your books out, you don't get in as deep as you should."
In fact, the six-page Web site, complete with dynamic graphics and audio slide shows, that Zielinska and Remikie are working on would be almost impossible to complete in a traditional 50-minute class, their teacher agreed.
"I can tell you right now that I love having a 110-minute block because we get so much accomplished," Cassandra Gresham said as her students worked. "I absolutely love it."
About one in four school districts nationwide have either dropped a day or considered doing so to cut costs, according to a 2008 survey by the American Association of School Administrators. Mostly small, rural districts have switched to truncated schedules, educators say.
Louie F. Rodriguez, who teaches urban public education at Florida International University, said shortening a school week is a structural change that doesn't necessarily improve or harm classroom learning. Having more impact, Rodriguez said, are relationships between students and adults and a school's culture.
"That's not going to change if there's a high-quality teacher in the classroom five days a week or four days a week," he said.
Pompano Beach High began compressing five days of regular classroom learning into four about eight years ago.
And now Broward, like the rest of Florida, is considering carving a day from the school week to save money by not having buses rumbling down streets or air-conditioning systems cooling schools.
"I don't like the idea that I have to talk about a four-day week," said Broward School Board Chairwoman Maureen Dinnen, who taught high school for 30 years. "Do I want all those high schoolers roaming the streets on Friday? I'm sure they're lovely kids, but it frightens me."
But with a $130 million budget cut in the past two school years and another $75 million cut expected for next year, it's a conversation Broward school officials say they must have.
The sentiment is different in Palm Beach County, where Art Johnson, the schools superintendent, has said he can't recommend unleashing all the students on the community when most adults are working, no matter the savings.
Debra Robinson, a Palm Beach County School Board member, says many parents would be extremely inconvenienced by a four-day school week.
"I'd have lots of questions how families could adapt to it," she said. "It seems school schedules drive all family life."
Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo said the shorter school week might work with "better motivated students" at magnet schools.
"But for the everyday, traditional high schooler, that's another day off unsupervised," he said. "I think it's predictable that lower educational performance and higher youth-related crime will follow."
While elected officials might mind the condensed school week, some parents of high schoolers feel differently.
Mark Scanlon said that as long as Cypress Bay High School in Weston keeps its block-class schedule — dividing the day into four, 90-minute classes — he doesn't mind if his daughter, a freshman, gets a three-day weekend.
"Kids can be involved in classes longer and be involved in a more intensive learning environment," Scanlon said. "It's almost like a college experience."
Pompano Beach High Principal David Gordon said the truncated week works at his school for two reasons. First, the entire campus is a magnet, meaning all 1,200 students must maintain a 2.5 average to stay in its international affairs, international business or information technology programs. The other reason: the school's block schedule.
"The block is critical to me," Gordon said. With that schedule, he explained, nothing is sacrificed academically.
Gordon's students may spend Fridays away from campus, but they still have take-home schoolwork, even if it's less than at traditional schools, students say.
Ask a senior round table how they spend their day off and you'll hear itineraries packed with volunteer hours, household chores and school assignments.
Senior Alan Gates said he sleeps in until about 9 a.m. Fridays, only to spend the next seven to eight hours doing homework. "But I go at a more relaxed pace," the 17-year-old said. There are TV and Facebook breaks, with a long lunch thrown in for good measure.
He calls it a day by 5 p.m. — homework complete and the rest of the weekend ahead of him.
Gordon said he hopes students manage to sneak in a little beach time every now and then, given the eight-hour school days.
"We beat them up pretty good for four days," he said.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Report: Integration lags, even as suburban schools add minorities (from CNN.com)
The report seems to suggest that there is a growing suburban segregation occuring.
--Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Integration lags, even as suburban schools add minorities
Story Highlights
Minorities made up 99 percent of increase in suburban school rolls, study says
Diversity rose, but typical white suburban students attend 75 percent-white schools
Expert: Racial differences in schools "cannot exist if schools are racially balanced"
Most-segregated suburban district lies in suburban Chicago, Illinois, study finds
(CNN) -- The nation's suburban schools added 3.4 million students to their rolls over the past 15 years -- and nearly all of them were minorities, according to a study released Tuesday.
Yet the new arrivals resulted in only a modest increase in the individual schools' racial and ethnic diversity, the study said.
"The school districts look like they are more diverse, but within your school districts, if the whites are in one school, the blacks in a different school and the Hispanics in yet a different school, it doesn't necessarily mean the suburban whites have more black and Hispanic classmates -- because they don't go to the same school," said Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, who wrote the report.
Using federal government data, Fry found that minority students made up 99 percent of the increase in suburban school enrollment between the 1993-94 and 2006-07 school years.
During that time, the student body at the nation's suburban schools went from 72 percent white to 59 percent white; from 12 percent black to 15 percent black; from 11 percent Hispanic to 20 percent Hispanic; and from 5 percent Asian to 6 percent Asian.
The diversity, however, is not reflected at the individual school level. For example, in 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75 percent white, down from 83 percent white in 1993-94, Fry wrote.
"So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points, the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much -- or 8 percentage points," the report said.
From another point of view, the typical black suburban student attended a school in 2006-07 that was 34 percent white, down from 43 percent white in 1993-94.
But Latino suburban students tended to become more segregated over the same time period -- in 2006-07, the typical such student was in a school that was 49 percent Latino, versus 42 percent Latino in 1993-94.
Suburban schools accounted for most of the change in demographics, according to the study, accounting for two-thirds of the 5.1 million increase in the number of students nationwide over that time period.
City schools tended to be more segregated than their suburban counterparts, the study said, with the typical urban black student attending a school with 60 percent black enrollees; and the typical Latino student attending a school with 63 percent Latino enrollment.
Minority students in rural areas and in towns tended to be more exposed to whites than were their suburban counterparts.
The typical black student in a town or rural area attended a school where whites composed 47 percent of the student body and blacks 44 percent. The typical Latino student in a town or rural area attended a school where whites made up 43 percent of the student body, and Latinos made up 47 percent.
Asians in suburban schools saw only a slight uptick in isolation -- from 23 percent Asian to 24 percent Asian over the time period.
However, "white students aren't going to school with as many black and Hispanic students as the aggregate school district enrollment numbers indicate," Fry said in a telephone interview.
School diversity has long been considered an important marker of racial equality in education.
"When students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds do not attend the same schools, the potential exists that they also may not attend the same type of schools, i.e., schools of similar quality and level of resources," Fry wrote. "Racial differences in school quality ... cannot exist if schools are racially balanced."
The study identified the nation's most-segregated suburban school district as Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89 School District in suburban Chicago, Illinois, based on its "dissimilarity index" of 0.79.
That index means that 79 percent of the district's minority students would have to be moved to different schools in order for the schools' student bodies to mirror the ethnic makeup of the surrounding population, he said.
The 0.74 figure for suburban Atlanta, Georgia's, DeKalb County means "you would have to move about three-quarters of DeKalb County's black students to a different school" in order to get racial balance, he said.
Calls to school superintendents in both districts were not immediately returned.
"The suburbs seem to have grown a lot more diverse," Fry concluded. "The place you'd expect to see it is among kids. But when you actually look at where kids go to school, it's not clear that white kids are going to school with a whole bunch more different classmates than they used to -- a little bit more, but not as much as the aggregate measures would suggest."
--Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report: Integration lags, even as suburban schools add minorities
Story Highlights
Minorities made up 99 percent of increase in suburban school rolls, study says
Diversity rose, but typical white suburban students attend 75 percent-white schools
Expert: Racial differences in schools "cannot exist if schools are racially balanced"
Most-segregated suburban district lies in suburban Chicago, Illinois, study finds
(CNN) -- The nation's suburban schools added 3.4 million students to their rolls over the past 15 years -- and nearly all of them were minorities, according to a study released Tuesday.
Yet the new arrivals resulted in only a modest increase in the individual schools' racial and ethnic diversity, the study said.
"The school districts look like they are more diverse, but within your school districts, if the whites are in one school, the blacks in a different school and the Hispanics in yet a different school, it doesn't necessarily mean the suburban whites have more black and Hispanic classmates -- because they don't go to the same school," said Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, who wrote the report.
Using federal government data, Fry found that minority students made up 99 percent of the increase in suburban school enrollment between the 1993-94 and 2006-07 school years.
During that time, the student body at the nation's suburban schools went from 72 percent white to 59 percent white; from 12 percent black to 15 percent black; from 11 percent Hispanic to 20 percent Hispanic; and from 5 percent Asian to 6 percent Asian.
The diversity, however, is not reflected at the individual school level. For example, in 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75 percent white, down from 83 percent white in 1993-94, Fry wrote.
"So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points, the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much -- or 8 percentage points," the report said.
From another point of view, the typical black suburban student attended a school in 2006-07 that was 34 percent white, down from 43 percent white in 1993-94.
But Latino suburban students tended to become more segregated over the same time period -- in 2006-07, the typical such student was in a school that was 49 percent Latino, versus 42 percent Latino in 1993-94.
Suburban schools accounted for most of the change in demographics, according to the study, accounting for two-thirds of the 5.1 million increase in the number of students nationwide over that time period.
City schools tended to be more segregated than their suburban counterparts, the study said, with the typical urban black student attending a school with 60 percent black enrollees; and the typical Latino student attending a school with 63 percent Latino enrollment.
Minority students in rural areas and in towns tended to be more exposed to whites than were their suburban counterparts.
The typical black student in a town or rural area attended a school where whites composed 47 percent of the student body and blacks 44 percent. The typical Latino student in a town or rural area attended a school where whites made up 43 percent of the student body, and Latinos made up 47 percent.
Asians in suburban schools saw only a slight uptick in isolation -- from 23 percent Asian to 24 percent Asian over the time period.
However, "white students aren't going to school with as many black and Hispanic students as the aggregate school district enrollment numbers indicate," Fry said in a telephone interview.
School diversity has long been considered an important marker of racial equality in education.
"When students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds do not attend the same schools, the potential exists that they also may not attend the same type of schools, i.e., schools of similar quality and level of resources," Fry wrote. "Racial differences in school quality ... cannot exist if schools are racially balanced."
The study identified the nation's most-segregated suburban school district as Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89 School District in suburban Chicago, Illinois, based on its "dissimilarity index" of 0.79.
That index means that 79 percent of the district's minority students would have to be moved to different schools in order for the schools' student bodies to mirror the ethnic makeup of the surrounding population, he said.
The 0.74 figure for suburban Atlanta, Georgia's, DeKalb County means "you would have to move about three-quarters of DeKalb County's black students to a different school" in order to get racial balance, he said.
Calls to school superintendents in both districts were not immediately returned.
"The suburbs seem to have grown a lot more diverse," Fry concluded. "The place you'd expect to see it is among kids. But when you actually look at where kids go to school, it's not clear that white kids are going to school with a whole bunch more different classmates than they used to -- a little bit more, but not as much as the aggregate measures would suggest."
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Unequal Education (from In These Times Magazine)
Please click on the link below to read about some of challenges facing education in Miami and how my research is trying to address the problems.--Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
http://inthesetimes.com/article/4244/unequal_education/
http://inthesetimes.com/article/4244/unequal_education/
Monday, January 26, 2009
Cisneros: Nation's future linked to Latino success (from the Associated Press)
I wonder if it is possible to consolidate these efforts in a single city and examine the effects. Then, perhaps we can develop policies that reach all cities. -Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cisneros: Nation's future linked to Latino success
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said Monday he plans to create a nonprofit that will help integrate newcomers to U.S. society by improving their English and expanding their participation in military service and civic activities.
Cisneros, who served in the Clinton administration, said he hopes to launch the group this year to "proselytize" the significance of immigrants and "the absolutely invaluable role they'll play in the American future."
The group would team up with churches, schools and other nonprofits to offer a "life plan" on how people integrate into American society, he said. The plan would include showing parents how U.S. schools work and how they can help their children advance as well as promoting their responsibility in building the nation's future.
"We've got to get beyond just the basics of legalization and citizenship," Cisneros said.
Leaving 12 million people in the shadows and undocumented "is not what civilized country wants to do when it needs workers," he said.
Latinos make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and will make up a quarter of the population by 2050. Even if the nation's borders were closed, the Latino population in the U.S. is expected to grow because the population's families are younger and larger.
Cisneros said his effort dovetails with President Barack Obama's message of multicultural inclusion. He said he and Obama talked last year about the "aspirational" themes of the Hispanic population — better wages, educational achievement, health care and legalization.
Cisneros and several other high-profile Latinos argue in a new book, "Latinos and the Nation's Future," that the large numbers mean the advancement and global competitiveness of the country depends on the progress of the Latino population.
"Is America going to be populated by a population that is large but poor, undereducated, underproductive, alienated in due course for lack of opportunity?" he asked. "Or is it a going to be populated by a community that is large but has infused with the education and skills so that it is one of the contributors to the energy, the creativity the productivity of this country going forward?"
On the Net:
Arte Publico Press: http://www.arte.uh.edu/
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cisneros: Nation's future linked to Latino success
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said Monday he plans to create a nonprofit that will help integrate newcomers to U.S. society by improving their English and expanding their participation in military service and civic activities.
Cisneros, who served in the Clinton administration, said he hopes to launch the group this year to "proselytize" the significance of immigrants and "the absolutely invaluable role they'll play in the American future."
The group would team up with churches, schools and other nonprofits to offer a "life plan" on how people integrate into American society, he said. The plan would include showing parents how U.S. schools work and how they can help their children advance as well as promoting their responsibility in building the nation's future.
"We've got to get beyond just the basics of legalization and citizenship," Cisneros said.
Leaving 12 million people in the shadows and undocumented "is not what civilized country wants to do when it needs workers," he said.
Latinos make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and will make up a quarter of the population by 2050. Even if the nation's borders were closed, the Latino population in the U.S. is expected to grow because the population's families are younger and larger.
Cisneros said his effort dovetails with President Barack Obama's message of multicultural inclusion. He said he and Obama talked last year about the "aspirational" themes of the Hispanic population — better wages, educational achievement, health care and legalization.
Cisneros and several other high-profile Latinos argue in a new book, "Latinos and the Nation's Future," that the large numbers mean the advancement and global competitiveness of the country depends on the progress of the Latino population.
"Is America going to be populated by a population that is large but poor, undereducated, underproductive, alienated in due course for lack of opportunity?" he asked. "Or is it a going to be populated by a community that is large but has infused with the education and skills so that it is one of the contributors to the energy, the creativity the productivity of this country going forward?"
On the Net:
Arte Publico Press: http://www.arte.uh.edu/
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Lawmakers' plan cuts education and borrows from kids' health care fund (from 10Connects.com--Tampa)
Once again, the people on the bottom are the first to absorb the pains associated with the budget cuts. --Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
Lawmakers' plan cuts education and borrows from kids' health care fund
Posted By: Grayson Kamm Date last updated: 1/12/2009 7:24:34 AM
Tallahassee, Florida -- State cuts will hit kids. Leaders in the legislature have decided to cut education and borrow from a kids' and seniors' health care fund as part of a plan to balance Florida's budget.
After a week of back-and-forth during a special session, lawmakers have put together a budget plan aimed at getting the state out of a $2.4 billion hole.
The budget plan is being delivered to lawmakers today. In it, school funding gets hit. Schools will lose $500 million statewide. That works out to $140 per student. Hospital funding will lose $100 million. The plan also increases speeding fines by $25 and other traffic fines by $10 across the board.
All those cuts and fines will cover about a billion dollars of the $2.4 billion hole. The rest will come from the state's savings accounts -- and it will drain them dramatically.
The plan borrows $700 million from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. That fund was formed with money from a settlement with tobacco companies. It's supposed to be used to pay for health care for poor children and seniors.
Another $400 million will come from the Budget Stabilization Fund -- the state's last-resort savings account. That fund will only have $250 million left in it. $190 million will be taken from a state housing trust fund and more than $300 million will come from other trust funds that haven't been named yet.
This plan was created by Republicans, then hammered out with Democrats. It does not include some big options Democrats had been pushing for, including a dollar-a-pack increase on cigarette taxes.
Along with some other smaller tax increases, the Democrats say their proposal could have meant the cuts to schools would have been smaller. But Governor Charlie Crist and Republicans the Legislature said they weren't willing to raise any taxes.
At least part of this budget battle could go to court. The budget plan raids the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, which is supposed to be set aside for health care. The family of the late Governor Chiles says they will sue to stop the state from borrowing money from the fund.
A vote on the budget plan is expected on Wednesday.
Lawmakers' plan cuts education and borrows from kids' health care fund
Posted By: Grayson Kamm Date last updated: 1/12/2009 7:24:34 AM
Tallahassee, Florida -- State cuts will hit kids. Leaders in the legislature have decided to cut education and borrow from a kids' and seniors' health care fund as part of a plan to balance Florida's budget.
After a week of back-and-forth during a special session, lawmakers have put together a budget plan aimed at getting the state out of a $2.4 billion hole.
The budget plan is being delivered to lawmakers today. In it, school funding gets hit. Schools will lose $500 million statewide. That works out to $140 per student. Hospital funding will lose $100 million. The plan also increases speeding fines by $25 and other traffic fines by $10 across the board.
All those cuts and fines will cover about a billion dollars of the $2.4 billion hole. The rest will come from the state's savings accounts -- and it will drain them dramatically.
The plan borrows $700 million from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. That fund was formed with money from a settlement with tobacco companies. It's supposed to be used to pay for health care for poor children and seniors.
Another $400 million will come from the Budget Stabilization Fund -- the state's last-resort savings account. That fund will only have $250 million left in it. $190 million will be taken from a state housing trust fund and more than $300 million will come from other trust funds that haven't been named yet.
This plan was created by Republicans, then hammered out with Democrats. It does not include some big options Democrats had been pushing for, including a dollar-a-pack increase on cigarette taxes.
Along with some other smaller tax increases, the Democrats say their proposal could have meant the cuts to schools would have been smaller. But Governor Charlie Crist and Republicans the Legislature said they weren't willing to raise any taxes.
At least part of this budget battle could go to court. The budget plan raids the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, which is supposed to be set aside for health care. The family of the late Governor Chiles says they will sue to stop the state from borrowing money from the fund.
A vote on the budget plan is expected on Wednesday.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Broward schools move to balance homework load (from Miami Herald)
Broward schools move to balance homework load
BY HANNAH SAMPSON
Danielle Jensen has had days when she couldn't go to dance class because she had so much homework. She wanted to join the volleyball team, but decided she couldn't juggle the practice with her studies. Sometimes she even brings her books to the dinner table.
Danielle, 11, is in sixth grade.
''It's sad to watch your 11-year-old kind of start acting like an 18-year-old,'' said Danielle's mom, Rosemarie Jensen of Parkland, a former elementary teacher who believes her daughter's workload is far too heavy.
When the Broward School Board opened up the district's website for feedback on the issue, dozens of parents responded with complaints. Parents say forcing a student to toil for hours a night takes away meaningful family time and opportunities for other educational and healthy activities including sports and music lessons.
But school districts say homework is important because it helps kids learn independence and responsibility, serves as a link between school and home and reinforces skills that students have learned in class.
''You introduce new materials, you want to make sure that you give students an opportunity to demonstrate that they understand the materials that have been taught,'' said Earlean Smiley, Broward's deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
But she acknowledged that teachers need to have greater coordination and consideration of how much homework they assign so students are not overwhelmed.
To that end, the Broward School Board took a first vote Tuesday on an updated homework policy. For the first time, Broward is giving parents an idea of guidelines for how much homework their students should get. The policy also urges teachers to better collaborate so that students aren't loaded up with projects at the same time.
Broward's guidelines say kids should have 10 minutes times their grade level. In other words, a third-grader should have about 30 minutes of homework, while a high school senior should have about two hours.
Recommendations vary somewhat, but experts say levels of daily homework for elementary schoolchildren should be no more than 30 minutes; for middle-schoolers, a maximum of an hour; and 1 ½-2 hours for high school students.
Karen Rivo, PTSA president at Miami Beach Senior High and chairwoman of an advisory committee on family involvement in Miami-Dade, said too much homework putspressure on families.
''What we see today is parents are so stressed in their lives,'' she said. ``Our schools need to be sensitive to the kind of homework they give and make sure it's not needless busywork.''
Education professor Dorene Ross, who teaches at the University of Florida, said excessive amounts of homework hurt student achievement.
''Too much homework is counter-productive,'' Ross said.
Miami-Dade's homework policy includes guidelines that recommend 30 minutes for kids in kindergarten and first grade; 45 for second- and third-graders; 60 for fourth- and fifth-graders; 75 for middle schoolers and two hours for high school students. All students are also supposed to spend 30 additional minutes reading.
Sara Bennett, an attorney who runs the website stophomework.com and co-author of The Case Against Homework, said Broward's changes sound like ``a start.''
``The question that I think every school should ask and every teacher should really be asking themselves is: What is the goal of their homework and why is it important and why is it more important than what a child might be doing that evening?''
Amy Phillips, a professor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, is not philosophically opposed to homework. But said she has seen her kids, a senior and a freshman at Coral Glades High, spend hours on their assignments.
''There just are not enough hours -- especially for these high school students that need a lot of sleep and have to have part-time jobs and want to do extra-curricular work -- to accomplish it in the amount of time that they need to,'' she said.
Darla March, of Miami, said her three sons' homework helps keep her in touch with what they are learning. The boys, who are 7, 10 and 13, attend Cypress Elementary and Palmetto Middle and spend between 20 minutes for the youngest and 2 ½ hours a day for the oldest on homework.
''I find it helpful as a parent to see my kids review whatever concept they learned in school, to do some of the test preparation work at home so it doesn't take instructional time,'' March said, but added: ``There has to be a balance to allow them to have fun and go outside.''
Rosemarie Jensen, the Parkland mom whose Westglades Middle sixth-grader is often overwhelmed by homework, said regular doses of an hour and a half of homework would be acceptable. And much of the work, she said, would be better done in class.
''I don't care if you work her to the bone in there,'' Jensen said. ``But give me my kid back at night.''
BY HANNAH SAMPSON
Danielle Jensen has had days when she couldn't go to dance class because she had so much homework. She wanted to join the volleyball team, but decided she couldn't juggle the practice with her studies. Sometimes she even brings her books to the dinner table.
Danielle, 11, is in sixth grade.
''It's sad to watch your 11-year-old kind of start acting like an 18-year-old,'' said Danielle's mom, Rosemarie Jensen of Parkland, a former elementary teacher who believes her daughter's workload is far too heavy.
When the Broward School Board opened up the district's website for feedback on the issue, dozens of parents responded with complaints. Parents say forcing a student to toil for hours a night takes away meaningful family time and opportunities for other educational and healthy activities including sports and music lessons.
But school districts say homework is important because it helps kids learn independence and responsibility, serves as a link between school and home and reinforces skills that students have learned in class.
''You introduce new materials, you want to make sure that you give students an opportunity to demonstrate that they understand the materials that have been taught,'' said Earlean Smiley, Broward's deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
But she acknowledged that teachers need to have greater coordination and consideration of how much homework they assign so students are not overwhelmed.
To that end, the Broward School Board took a first vote Tuesday on an updated homework policy. For the first time, Broward is giving parents an idea of guidelines for how much homework their students should get. The policy also urges teachers to better collaborate so that students aren't loaded up with projects at the same time.
Broward's guidelines say kids should have 10 minutes times their grade level. In other words, a third-grader should have about 30 minutes of homework, while a high school senior should have about two hours.
Recommendations vary somewhat, but experts say levels of daily homework for elementary schoolchildren should be no more than 30 minutes; for middle-schoolers, a maximum of an hour; and 1 ½-2 hours for high school students.
Karen Rivo, PTSA president at Miami Beach Senior High and chairwoman of an advisory committee on family involvement in Miami-Dade, said too much homework putspressure on families.
''What we see today is parents are so stressed in their lives,'' she said. ``Our schools need to be sensitive to the kind of homework they give and make sure it's not needless busywork.''
Education professor Dorene Ross, who teaches at the University of Florida, said excessive amounts of homework hurt student achievement.
''Too much homework is counter-productive,'' Ross said.
Miami-Dade's homework policy includes guidelines that recommend 30 minutes for kids in kindergarten and first grade; 45 for second- and third-graders; 60 for fourth- and fifth-graders; 75 for middle schoolers and two hours for high school students. All students are also supposed to spend 30 additional minutes reading.
Sara Bennett, an attorney who runs the website stophomework.com and co-author of The Case Against Homework, said Broward's changes sound like ``a start.''
``The question that I think every school should ask and every teacher should really be asking themselves is: What is the goal of their homework and why is it important and why is it more important than what a child might be doing that evening?''
Amy Phillips, a professor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, is not philosophically opposed to homework. But said she has seen her kids, a senior and a freshman at Coral Glades High, spend hours on their assignments.
''There just are not enough hours -- especially for these high school students that need a lot of sleep and have to have part-time jobs and want to do extra-curricular work -- to accomplish it in the amount of time that they need to,'' she said.
Darla March, of Miami, said her three sons' homework helps keep her in touch with what they are learning. The boys, who are 7, 10 and 13, attend Cypress Elementary and Palmetto Middle and spend between 20 minutes for the youngest and 2 ½ hours a day for the oldest on homework.
''I find it helpful as a parent to see my kids review whatever concept they learned in school, to do some of the test preparation work at home so it doesn't take instructional time,'' March said, but added: ``There has to be a balance to allow them to have fun and go outside.''
Rosemarie Jensen, the Parkland mom whose Westglades Middle sixth-grader is often overwhelmed by homework, said regular doses of an hour and a half of homework would be acceptable. And much of the work, she said, would be better done in class.
''I don't care if you work her to the bone in there,'' Jensen said. ``But give me my kid back at night.''
Monday, December 15, 2008
Study Details Educational Challenges Facing U.S. Latino Community (from Hispanic Business)
I'm looking forward to reading this book.--Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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Study Details Educational Challenges Facing U.S. Latino Community
Dec 15 2008 1:50PM
Lydia Gil--EFE
In their forthcoming book, "The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies," two U.S. professors detail the educational challenges confronting this country's Latino community.
UCLA's Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras of the University of Washington examine not only the causes but also the social and economic consequences of this worrying educational gap.
According to the study, Latinos, the country's biggest and fastest-growing minority, academically are being left behind at a dangerous rate.
One of the more worrying figures cited in the study is that while other ethnic minorities have managed to increase the percentage of their members who complete university studies, about half of Latino students don't even finish high school, a level that is similar to what it was three decades ago.
Upon consideration of the rapid widening of the income gap between those who have a university diploma and those who do not, one can appreciate why the researchers have called this crisis alarming and potentially devastating for the Latino community.
However, although the study is quantitatively rigorous, it does not limit itself to simply forecasting the crisis, but rather calls for action to change the trend in the figures.
The book indicates that, in contrast to other immigrant groups in the past, Latinos nowadays will not be able to easily exceed the social and economic status of their parents and grandparents.
According to the authors, U.S. society imposes conditions that exceed the ability of immigrants to overcome educational and socio-economic barriers.
They say, however, that the educational gap between Latinos and other groups is not completely related, nor even in large measure, to conditions linked to immigration, given that several recent studies concluded that bilingual or recently arrived students tend to come out better academically than Latinos born and raised in the United States.
The study says that nowadays, just one in every 10 Latinos obtains a university degree compared to one in four non-Hispanic whites and one in three Asian Americans.
These figures show that the graduation rate among Latinos has not increased in recent decades, which, added to the population increase among the Latino community, translates into a serious prognosis for the country's economy.
The authors provide as an example the state of California, where by 2020 it is expected there will be a 11 percent decline in per capita income if there is no intervention in favor of students poorly represented in the university system.
The call to action is urgent not only for California, but also for other states including Arizona and Texas, where Latinos comprise a high percentage of the population and where the inequalities in access to university education are mirrored.
According to the study, the statistics reflect a problem that goes beyond the faults in the educational system or the lack of resources there into the "American mythology" that with enough effort, everyone can achieve success in this country without regard to the circumstances they confront.
By not focusing exclusively on immigration, language, the lack of systemic resources or administration policy, Gandara and Contreras provide a comprehensive vision of the causes of educational disparity between the different ethnic groups in the United States and the challenges confronting the Latino community, in particular.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Study Details Educational Challenges Facing U.S. Latino Community
Dec 15 2008 1:50PM
Lydia Gil--EFE
In their forthcoming book, "The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies," two U.S. professors detail the educational challenges confronting this country's Latino community.
UCLA's Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras of the University of Washington examine not only the causes but also the social and economic consequences of this worrying educational gap.
According to the study, Latinos, the country's biggest and fastest-growing minority, academically are being left behind at a dangerous rate.
One of the more worrying figures cited in the study is that while other ethnic minorities have managed to increase the percentage of their members who complete university studies, about half of Latino students don't even finish high school, a level that is similar to what it was three decades ago.
Upon consideration of the rapid widening of the income gap between those who have a university diploma and those who do not, one can appreciate why the researchers have called this crisis alarming and potentially devastating for the Latino community.
However, although the study is quantitatively rigorous, it does not limit itself to simply forecasting the crisis, but rather calls for action to change the trend in the figures.
The book indicates that, in contrast to other immigrant groups in the past, Latinos nowadays will not be able to easily exceed the social and economic status of their parents and grandparents.
According to the authors, U.S. society imposes conditions that exceed the ability of immigrants to overcome educational and socio-economic barriers.
They say, however, that the educational gap between Latinos and other groups is not completely related, nor even in large measure, to conditions linked to immigration, given that several recent studies concluded that bilingual or recently arrived students tend to come out better academically than Latinos born and raised in the United States.
The study says that nowadays, just one in every 10 Latinos obtains a university degree compared to one in four non-Hispanic whites and one in three Asian Americans.
These figures show that the graduation rate among Latinos has not increased in recent decades, which, added to the population increase among the Latino community, translates into a serious prognosis for the country's economy.
The authors provide as an example the state of California, where by 2020 it is expected there will be a 11 percent decline in per capita income if there is no intervention in favor of students poorly represented in the university system.
The call to action is urgent not only for California, but also for other states including Arizona and Texas, where Latinos comprise a high percentage of the population and where the inequalities in access to university education are mirrored.
According to the study, the statistics reflect a problem that goes beyond the faults in the educational system or the lack of resources there into the "American mythology" that with enough effort, everyone can achieve success in this country without regard to the circumstances they confront.
By not focusing exclusively on immigration, language, the lack of systemic resources or administration policy, Gandara and Contreras provide a comprehensive vision of the causes of educational disparity between the different ethnic groups in the United States and the challenges confronting the Latino community, in particular.
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