Education Notebook

ARTICLE: Pawlenty proposes Race to the Top-focused bill for second heat of federal program

ST. PAUL — Gov. Tim Pawlenty again raised the banner of education reform Monday as he released a comprehensive bill that includes many of the initiatives he previously pressed the Legislature to support.

The bill is related to the second round of the federal Race to the Top application, an Obama administration program that seeks to award a total of $4.35 billion to a handful of states that are picked from a competitive application process.

The first round recently wrapped up, with Tennessee receiving $500 million and Delaware receiving $100 million. Minnesota was not named a finalist in that round and the state has until June 1 to apply for the second round of funding.

"The only question for Minnesota will be, 'Do you want to lead or do you want to be late to the game?'" Pawlenty said in a conference call.

Article: Rochester students tally stagnant Stanford standardized test scores (say that five times fast)

Students in Rochester public schools registered stagnant test scores on this year’s Stanford Achievement Test, a popular standardized test given to Rochester’s second through ninth-grade students.

Below is the rest of the story that will appear in Thursday's print edition, as well as a file with all Stanford test results since 2005. This is the story mentioned in Wednesday's story about the five-year plan.

Article: Improvement for Rochester schools might reside within core curriculum

While the Rochester school district has grappled with a five-year plan to help failing students reach proficiency and close achievement gaps, the way to improve state test scores might be to change the district's core curriculum, according to a discussion Tuesday night.

School board members discussed the curriculum during an update of the five-year plan to raise student proficiency. Much of the discussion centered around other items, like current practices going on in schools, continuing to implement interventions, etc.

Below are links to the article and the presentation, and the article is pasted below those:

LINK: Improvement in Rochester schools might sit in core curriculum (article)
LINK: District management plan update (pdf)

Price tag keeps Rochester schools from offering quarterly tests

Rochester public school staff Tuesday night affirmed confidence in quarterly testing -- a program that would give teachers real-time results about student performance -- but confessed that they aren't pursing such a system because it would be too costly.

The price tag for the software alone would be from $120,000 to $170,000. Other costs would come in having staff dedicated to writing tests, reviewing data, developing re-teaching plans, etc.

Rochester public schools are currently underway on an aggressive five-year plan to close the district's achievement and proficiency gaps. Read more about it here, at a district-made Web site..

Here is today's article.

From the article:

Quarterly tests would provide teachers with real-time data about student performance, Griffin-Ziebart said. If a student failed to understand particular items, staff members could adjust curriculum to re-teach the material. ...

Those tests, Griffin-Ziebart said, could build off of the district's efforts to offer targeted services in reading and math for students failing to reach proficiency on state tests. The state test data (MCA-II) is delivered during the summer months, which education officials have said doesn't allow for remediation opportunities during the year.

My regular reader might recall the "classroom clickers" that some teachers are using -- small handheld devices that give teachers instant feedback within the classroom. Then teachers can see exactly who didn't understand a particular lesson, or if a large percentage didn't understand a particular lesson.

That real-time data, and the ability to tailor teaching to it, seems to be one of the best ways to apply technology into the classroom.

LINK: Price tag keeps quarterly test program on sidelines