Beacon Preparatory School first open house

Last night, Scholar attended the first open house for Beacon Preparatory School, a public charter middle school opening in Plymouth next fall.

Beacon Prep is sponsored by Friends of Ascension, building on the success of an existing Friends of Ascension charter elementary school (Beacon Academy), and based on Core Knowledge, Saxon Math, daily Spanish language instruction, and character development.

One of the board members noted that Core Knowledge is the same curriculum being used by that school just up I-494 from Beacon Prep: the highly regarded Providence Academy. Of course, Beacon Prep will be charging much lower tuition (zero), and its campus lacks PA's look-and-feel of Colonial Williamsburg!

Both the lower Beacon Academy and the upper Beacon Prep are housed in the former Beacon Heights Elementary School. The building was recently upgraded with new heating and air conditioning, and a wireless computer network. It has the sturdy, traditional feel of a post-World War II school building, complete with a hardwood floor gym and those indestructible terazzo floors I recognize from my salad days in the 1970s.

The Beacon Prep board of directors is made up of parents and community members (and soon teachers, after they are hired). Some of the directors are parents of current Beacon Academy pupils. Parent volunteerism is expected to be as robust as it is for Beacon Academy. The startup coordinator is Jordan Ford, a longtime family friend and an experienced private, public, and charter school administrator. Other than homeschooling, this is the ultimate in local control, truly a community-run school.

Last night's open house was attended by around thirty parents and a few prospective members of Beacon Prep's first sixth grade class. Ford provided a detailed, rapid fire PowerPoint presentation, which revealed that Beacon Prep is on track for a successful fall 2006 opening. A grades 6-12 charter is in hand, grant money secured, staffing underway, facility being readied, startup coordinator and board of directors in place, and classrooms being stocked with everything from books to computers. The first direct mailing to prospective students is complete, and the first student applications have been accepted.

Some of Beacon Prep's operational details are to be determined, based on the needs of its future students: transportation, sports opportunities, enrichment (Destination Imagination and Continental Math League were mentioned as possibilities), and possible expansion to grade 12. Special education services will be available as in any other public school.

Ford said that about six applications were accepted before last night's initial open house. Beacon Prep plans on two sections of sixth grade for 2006-2007, with about 26 students in each section, for a total of around 52. After the application deadline of March 17, 2006, further applications will be put on a waiting list, and a lottery held after the enrollment limit is reached.

This year's fifth grader parents who are looking for an affordable alternative to integrated math, lack of classic literature or world languages, large class sizes, and the bureaucracy of a large suburban school district should check out Beacon Preparatory School. The next open houses are Tuesday, March 7 and Saturday, March 11.

EDUCATION

History Day

An American student, regardless of race, religion, or gender, must know the history of the land to which they pledge allegiance. They should be taught about the Founding Fathers of this Nation, the battles that they fought, the ideals that they championed, and the enduring effects of their accomplishments. They should be taught about our nation's failures, our mistakes, and the inequities of our past. Without this knowledge, they cannot appreciate the hard won freedoms that are our birthright.
—Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia)

So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important...If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
—Ronald Reagan

Take away a nation's heritage and they are more easily persuaded.
—Karl Marx

Yesterday morning, Scholar had an opportunity to study his favorite topics — curriculum and instruction, and United States history — as a judge at the Wayzata East Middle School History Day competition.

The History Day competitions among the seventh graders at Wayzata East, Central, and West Middle Schools (and many other schools nationwide) are the first rung in a National History day program that leads to regional, state, and national History Day events. This year's theme is "Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events." According to the Minnesota History Day web site:

Students make history come alive as their research leads to imaginative exhibits, original performances, media presentations and papers in junior and senior divisions in seven categories.

History Day demonstrates that students learn history when they do history. This program provides the ideal format to meet the inquiry component of the state graduation standards.

Performance-based learning

The old Profile of Learning "performance packages" are dead, but long live performance-based learning anyway. Taken to its extremes, in performance-based learning, the process of doing is equally or more important than the academic content. In addition, teachers are encouraged to be a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage:" students direct their own learning. They choose the topic, whether to work alone or in a group, even what sort of product they will create.

For performance-based activities like History Day, in which seventh graders produce multimedia presentations, poster boards, or performance art, the devil is in the implementation details. The subject may "come alive" for students, or students could spend weeks trying to schedule a time when everyone can meet after school, or mired in the technical minutiae of PowerPoint, scrapbooking, or DVD burning, to the detriment of learning the ostensible subject at hand. Others may choose a topic with only tenuous connections to the assigned theme, reducing the benefits of the exercise from the start. In other words, it can be a rich learning experience and lifelong memory, or a profound waste of time.

How they fared

So how did the wide-eyed, energetic scholars at Wayzata East fare on History Day 2006? Results varied. Perennial topics like Jackie Robinson and Harriet Tubman were treated with less depth and imagination than original choices like local hero Bob Fisher, who founded The Sleep Out fundraiser for the homeless. Experienced scrapbooking girls produced much more attractive poster boards than most of the boys. Kids with access to technology at home produced some impressive iMovie and PowerPoint projects. Almost every student produced neatly word-processed reports, with an extra copy available for the judges. One judge told of an exhibit about Patrick Henry taking a stand with his "Give Me Liberty" speech, but its creators could not identify whether Henry fought on the side of the Colonists or the British!

Some individuals and teams (the students could choose whether to work individually or in a team of two or more) did well at learning about their topic in depth. One duo tackled the life of Hubert Humphrey with gusto, interviewing family members for their favorite Humphrey quotes and memories, taking in Humphrey exhibits in a museum, downloading Humphrey images from the Internet, producing an attractive three-panel exhibit, compiling an extensive bibliography, and even creating props like campaign buttons from historical sources.

Yet according to its creators, even this stellar entry (we recommended it for advancement to the regional competition) was sidetracked by issues like matting photos and spray painting. Each team was required to write a "process paper" that summarizes technical challenges, and how the team worked together.

The student-directed approach to process-based learning should signal parents to pay extra attention to their child's project assignment, their choice of topic and work product (report, exhibit, performance, multimedia, etc.), their choice of working in a group or individually, and their progress during the project. They should also find out how much guidance students receive on the project in class. The nature of student-directed, process-based learning will ensure that results will vary widely since every student will get a different experience. Schools should balance performance-based instruction with direct instruction. As one student put it, "We come to school because people who know more than we do have something to teach us."

EDUCATION

Coming to Minnesota: universal mental health screening?

The Minnesota Legislature is considering universal mental health screening for all kids at least once by age three ("all" means "all").

Mental health screening is subjective and inaccurate in children. Diagnoses very often reflect simple behavioral issues or "politically incorrect" attitudes and values. Powerful medications with serious side effects are almost always used as the treatment. Using drugs to control behavior is dangerous and wrong, especially when study after study has shown these drugs to be ineffective and dangerous. Prescriptions for psychotropic drugs for children have increased by 300% in ten years!

You can learn more about this issue at an evening sponsored by EdWatch, "The Dangers of Universal Mental Health Screening Legislation in Minnesota," 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 2, 2006 at the Green Mill Restaurant in Plymouth. The speaker will be Dr. Karen Effrem, M.D.

Reservations are due Monday, February 27. The cost is $25, which includes dinner. For further information, contact EdWatch, (952) 361-4931.

Land of the free (except for school choice)

"Most countries that beat America on international tests give their students that choice. In Belgium, the government spends less than American schools do on each student, but the money is attached to the kids. So they can go wherever they want — to a state-run school, a Montessori school, or even a religious school... In public education, our land of the free is now a bunch of local fiefs, where petty-bureaucrats-turned-lords-of-the-manor decide whether you can get a decent education, and parents must go to them, begging for their children's future. Meanwhile, in Belgium and much of the rest of the world, students and their parents have the freedom to choose their schools?and the opportunity that comes with that freedom." —John Stossel

EDUCATION

Take the lead, take the money

Mike Antonucci's Education Intelligence Agency is the best teachers union watchdog on the web. I learn something new, interesting, and humorous with every visit to his site and every e-mail "EIA Communiqué."

Antonucci recently reported on the Washington Education Association's new well-funded public relations campaign for more education funding, which sounds eerily like Education Minnesota's new well-funded public relations campaign for more education funding:

Take the Lead, and the Money. Next week the Washington Education Association (WEA) will launch its latest public relations campaign for more education funding with a member mailing. The campaign will feature the slogan "Take the lead. Restoring Washington's Commitment to Great Public Schools."

WEA distributed its rationale for the rather pedestrian campaign name. I've posted it as an Acrobat file, and was fascinated by the description of it as a "multi-year effort," that included member focus groups and polling. The result, WEA believes, is believable, aspirational, factual, empowering, positive, solution-oriented, etc.

In fact, the slogan does accomplish the most important thing: it doesn't mention money. EIA has also posted the union's talking points as an Acrobat file. They make it clear that "commitment" means money, and only money. But a media campaign with the slogan "We want more of your money!" isn't likely to have the desired effect.

(For more, see the Education Intelligence Agency and drill down to the January 30, 2006 "EIA Communiqué.")

Public relations campaigns like this (and follow-on lobbying at state legislatures and Congress) will become increasingly sophisticated and persuasive. According to the EIA, the "underpaid and unappreciated" National Education Association union member accounted for over 15% of all union members in 2004 (the latest data publicly available). In Minnesota, where the NEA and AFT affiliates merged into a 73,000 dues-paying member organization, the percentage was 17%.

Meanwhile, parents and taxpayers are pretty much on their own when it comes to lobbying. When evaluating the merits of these P.R. campaigns, legislators and voters should recall the candid remarks of Albert Shanker, American Federation of Teachers President (1974-1997): "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."

EDUCATION

Kerry: less than half of Americans are high school grads

This morning, the Drudge Report posted a transcript of an interview between Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and Katie Couric, in which Kerry claimed that "53 percent of our children don't graduate from high school." But Drudge disputes the statement:

Kerry's 53% claim conflicts with a recent press release from the U.S. Census Bureau: "High School Graduation Rates Reach All-Time High."

And the Census Bureau's own website states: 85.9 Percent Of Americans Aged 20-24 Are High School Graduates. (U.S. Census Bureau Website, www.census.gov, Accessed 2/1/06)

You are entitled to your own opinions, Sen. Kerry, but not to your own facts.

Thandiwe Peebles resigns

Another academic bull has been kicked out of Minnesota's K-12 china shop.

The Minneapolis school board accepted the resignation of Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles, who simultaneously raised test scores, assigned homework over Christmas (sorry, "winter") vacation, rankled educators, snubbed politicians, allegedly used district resources for personal gain, and according to a Star Tribune report, failed to touch "the right bases downtown."

"In the end you fail because the politics causes you to fail," said Charlie Kyte, a former superintendent and head of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, in the Strib story. "There really is a conflict here," Kyte continued, "between the real users of the Minneapolis public schools, which is a whole set of communities of color, and the established old-guard liberals who are primarily white ... The adult drama needs to come to an end, and everyone needs to refocus on education and achievement."

That's all well and good, but focusing on education and achievement can get you fired. Just ask Dave Jennings, Thandiwe Peebles and Cheri Pierson Yecke.

EDUCATION

A charter school is (re)born

Regular Scholar's Notebook readers will recall last year's story of Veritas Academy, a fledgling charter school that due to various circumstances never opened its doors.

I am happy to report that Veritas Academy is now Beacon Preparatory School, which will be open in Plymouth, Minnesota in the fall of 2006 for sixth grade, sixth and seventh in 2007, and adding grade eight in 2008. The school has the same sponsor as the former Veritas Academy, Friends of Ascension. In fact, Friends of Ascension is also the sponsor of Beacon Academy, a K-5 charter school that will share space with Beacon Prep.

The mission of the Friends of Ascension is "to improve the education of children." They began by starting Ascension School in north Minneapolis with traditional math and Core Knowledge curricula. Their results fly in the face of public schools that whine about demographics. Where Ascension School is located, 31.7% of the families with minor children have incomes below the poverty level, and 76.7% of the population is minority (the largest groups are African-American, 51.2%, and Asian, 17.9%).

In 1999, before Friends of Ascension implemented the Saxon math program in the school, Ascension grade school performed at a 21% pass rate on the Minnesota mathematics standardized achievement tests. In 2000, Ascension School achieved an 80% pass rate on both the Basic Skills mathematics test and the reading test. In 2005, the students achieved a 90% pass rate on the math test and a 95% pass rate on the reading test.

According to the group, "Due to the tremendous success achieved at Ascension School with the Core Knowledge sequence and Saxon math, Friends of Ascension sponsors only those charter schools which implement the Core Knowledge sequence in grades K-8 and a similar classic content-rich curriculum in grades 9-12. Friends of Ascension also requires that its sponsored schools implement a phonics-based reading program and a sequential math curriculum typified by the Saxon math program."

Friends of Ascension is apparently determined to duplicate its successes across the state. The non-profit group now sponsors over a dozen Minnesota charter schools now in operation or in the planning stages, including Beacon Preparatory School.

Beacon Prep's association with Beacon Academy gives the school some significant advantages:

• Beacon Prep's start-up coordinator is Beacon Academy's current principal/director, Jordan Ford, an experienced educator and administrator.


• Beacon Prep's board of directors include current Beacon Academy parents and the mayor of nearby Medicine Lake, Mary Anne Young.


• Beacon Prep will be housed in the same building as Beacon Academy, a renovated former Wayzata Public Schools building on a hillside with over five acres.

Ford tells me that area residents will soon receive a mailer announcing the opening of Beacon Prep in the fall of 2006. Board meetings are already open to the public, and parent information meetings will begin soon. Beacon Prep seems poised to offer west metro parents the choice of a tuition-free "public school with a private school curriculum."

EDUCATION, CHARTER SCHOOLS

Stossel challenges the American education establishment

John Stossel gets an "A" for taking a hard look at the failures and successes of K-12 education in America in his 20/20 program, "Stupid in America." Visit the companion web site for a report that partially follows the TV script, a link to purchase the report on video and its transcript, and a huge Stossel message board, and more.

Stossel tackles these hot-button topics in education reform:

• Funding — "National graduation rates and achievement scores are flat, while spending on education has increased more than 100 percent since 1971. More money hasn't helped American kids."


• Choice — "In Belgium, by contrast, the money is attached to the kids — it's a kind of voucher system. Government funds education — at many different kinds of schools — but if a school can't attract students, it goes out of business...'That's normal in Western Europe,' Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby told me. 'If schools don't perform well, a parent would never be trapped in that school in the same way you could be trapped in the U.S.'"


• Unions — "...in New York City these problem teachers are made to sit in the 'rubber room' which are rooms where they go by day to sit and read books and magazines, rather than to teach. The school not only pays their salary and keeps them employed but they pay $20 million per year to rent four different buildings to house these teachers. There are 80,000 teachers in New York City and they said only two have ever been fired due to having just cause. A flow chart of the disciplinary process for teachers was shown and it unfolded it seemed to go on and on, with many pages, with a complicated flow chart process! (from Christine at The Thinking Mother)

If it ever reruns, record it if you can for repeated viewings, or buy it on DVD or VHS from ABC News. It should be required viewing for any taxpayer or parent of school-age children, just for the questions it raises.

The show has generated quite the buzz in the blogosphere:

Don't miss the related post and comments over at fellow MOBster Prof. King Banaian's SCSU Scholars.

Education-related bloggers check in at the current Carnival of Education over at the Education Wonks.

Google Blogsearch: john stossel stupid in america

EDUCATION

The federalization of education

Diane Ravitch, author of the education reform classics The Language Police and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, is advocating national standards as a way to hold states more accountable for student achievement. She says that standards based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are the next logical step in the standards-based reform that began with Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind.

It seems time for conservative watchdog groups like EdWatch to say, "I told you so." When EdWatch began fighting The Profile of Learning back in the 1990s, they were warning against the federalization of education.

After the Minnesota Legislature repealed the fuzzy process-based disaster called The Profile of Learning, Gov. Tim Pawlenty charged his new education commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke with developing new state academic standards in their place. As a member of Yecke's Social Studies Academic Standards Committee, I witnessed first-hand the good, the bad, and the ugly of standards setting at the state level. Good and bad, the process nevertheless was probably the most open and transparent in state history, with open meeting laws enforced, statewide public hearings, a Department of Education web site, and a then-new medium called blogs exposing the process for the world to see. Warts and all, it was a public process, a Minnesota process.

I would have very little faith in the U.S. Department of Education, Department of Labor, or any other federal agency charged with porting the NAEP into national academic standards, to conduct a national standards creation process with such transparency (setting aside the dubious merit of basing standards on the NAEP at all). The federal bureaucracy and education establishment would write the nation's standards, as they wrote the NAEP, with little or no citizen and parent input or feedback.

The states and local school districts, not to mention students and parents, would hand over an enormous amount of accountability to the feds in return for very little funding (in Minnesota, the federal government accounts for about 7% of education funding). A national curriculum would naturally follow national standards. School boards and state legislatures would be reduced to picking out paint and carpet colors, while keeping the bulk of the burden for funding and fulfilling a raft of underfunded mandates.

Conservatives have warned for years against the federalization of education. First of all, the states, not the federal government, are constitutionally responsible for education. Check out your state's constitution. Minnesota's says: "The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state."

By its silence on education, the Tenth Amendment to the federal constitution defers to the states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Presidents have also warned against the federalization of education:

Diffusion of authority among tens of thousands of school districts is a safeguard against centralized control and abuse of the educational system that must be maintained. —Dwight D. Eisenhower, New York Herald Tribune, February 9, 1955

I believe this [the National Education Association proposal for a federal education system] is the road to disaster and the end of academic freedom. —Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1976

If you want to improve academic achievement in America, we don't need another failed reform by a bigger U.S. Department of Education, we need to get rid of this Jimmy Carter-era, 4,500-employee, $71.5 billion bureaucracy, restore to the states full control of their constitutional mandate for K-12 education, and let the funding follow the child.

EDUCATION