TECHNOS

January 6, 2009

Technos e-Zine

June 2006—Vol. 3, No. 6

Welcome to the technos.net e-newsletter, published by AIT’s Technos Press. You’ll find valuable information here about AIT products and services and other noteworthy news from the world of education. Please let us know what you think, or what you’d like to see here, by emailing us at: editor@ait.net. Thank you!

Featured Interview

William L. Bainbridge, President & CEO of SchoolMatch^®

Give Dr. Wm. Bainbridge and his colleagues credit: They saw an opportunity to meet a need among mobile families in this country, and they devised a means to fulfill it. These educational research professionals began SchoolMatch^® 20 years ago to provide auditable data about K–12 public schools in America to evaluate performance, compare those results, and rate schools accordingly. Families in the relocation process and their employers needed the information to choose proper schools in their new locations. Corporate clients also receive guidance in their nonprofit efforts to support education and their school-business partnerships. Realtors find the SchoolMatch information to be helpful in assisting their clients with school-aged children to buy a house. SchoolMatch^® has successfully conducted more than 1000 Educational Effectiveness Audits of school systems in over 30 states throughout the country. Those schools and school districts are part of the SchoolMatch School Membership program, which uses a "mean-matched" device—a customized identification of school systems with similar characteristics. This system compares schools with others in terms of socio-economic status including adult education level, family income level, poverty rates, and English language proficiency. Dr. Bainbridge is the former superintendent of three school districts in Ohio and Virginia and former Assistant to the Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was named Educator of the Year by the Ohio PTA, is a Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners, and Diplomate of the National Academy for School Executives. Technos talked to Bill Bainbridge via email in May.

T: SchoolMatch was instituted to fulfill the need for hard data about K–12 schools in the United States. What initially prompted your group to begin gathering and making available the information that SchoolMatch now provides?

W.L.B.: Parents. Before we started SchoolMatch in 1986, as educational administrators we received scores of questions from parents who found themselves moving from one part of the country to another, seeking comparative information about schools. As educators, we would often receive questions like, "My family is moving to Peoria shortly, and we need to buy a new home. Where are the best schools in the Peoria area?" It occurred to us that a national resource whereby parents could easily and quickly compare the effectiveness of public schools was sorely needed. So, we set about building such a resource. The result is SchoolMatch. We conducted survey research and had the cooperation of two Fortune 500 companies in facilitating focus groups of relocating families to determine what their potential clients wanted.

Is there a correlation with No Child Left Behind requirements?

The SchoolMatch approach to analyzing school effectiveness is multi-dimensional and systemic, with careful attention to comparing performance indicators among like socio-economic student population groups. The No Child Left Behind approach fosters measurement of student performance on an intrastate basis (within a state’s boundaries) and within state-mandated proficiency, criterion-referenced examinations at various grade levels. There are no provisions for the type of interstate comparisons that we provide. The "test" becomes all-important, and the measure of effectiveness uni-dimensional. NCLB has yet to recognize that public school systems cannot guarantee the same success for every child.

Fortunately, there are multiple dimensions to learning and multiple ways of rewarding students for their efforts. The SchoolMatch FairCompare Audit of Educational Effectiveness process seeks out those dimensions, recognizes excellence, and highlights opportunities to enhance and extend successes based on many different data elements that document aspects of effectiveness.

Corporations and their nonprofit entities are also among your client base. Have you found them open to your services and recommendations for improvement of their programs to support education?

Yes. Corporations and their nonprofit entities are looking to support practical solutions to practical problems faced by today’s school systems as school personnel seek to educate an increasingly diverse American population. Our approach and the recommendations that result emphasize pragmatic steps that can be taken to increase school system effectiveness. Corporate leaders embrace a databased approach to problem solving. In some cases the recommendations lead to major programmatic and even governance changes within school systems.

What types of data does SchoolMatch through its FairCompare Analysis and Audit gather? What is the significance and utility of providing benchmark districts for comparison?

We look at a variety of data elements that research on school effectiveness has shown provide insight into how effective schools are. Such indicators include student performance on norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, attendance patterns for students and teachers, student dropout rates, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate program offerings, grade inflation, and community perceptions of school effectiveness. Community indicators include perceptions about school leadership, emphasis on learning, school climate, monitoring student performance, and high performance aspirations.

Benchmarks are significant only if they can be determined in relationship to similar school populations with similar socio-demographic characteristics and relatively similar sizes. With complete and current databases on each of the 15,573 operating public school systems in the country, we are able to identify performance characteristics of similar school systems and then pinpoint where a single school system "stacks up." That becomes the benchmark from which real improvement can be measured. We believe it is unfair and counterproductive to compare the performance of a single school system to its geographic neighbors because the student populations to be served are different. Rather, effective benchmarking comes when like student populations are assessed.

Read the entire interview.

Featured Essay

The opinions expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect those of the staff and officers of AIT.

NYC Offers Subsidy to Specialty Teachers

By William L. Bainbridge, President and CEO of SchoolMatch^®

Many schools that have large numbers of students with low test scores also have a teaching staff that is ill-prepared and lacks college course work to teach subjects such as chemistry, calculus, and special education. Anyone who types “marketplace pay and teachers” into Google can review a sampling of the numerous articles and speeches my colleagues and I have developed to advocate reformed compensation systems.

Differentiated-compensation structures hold the most promise to provide students with the subject-qualified teachers they need to improve learning. We have backed differentiated compensation for teachers in documented areas of chronic critical shortages. Many students in inner-city and rural schools are in classrooms with underqualified teachers in high-demand subject and content areas, largely because so few teachers come out of graduate schools certificated to teach higher-level mathematics, physical sciences, and special education.

Critics will cry that public-school systems are too large, bureaucratic, and unionized to consider any form of differentiated pay. Many school leaders believe the current, almost universal teacher-compensation scheme based on seniority and education level alone is here to stay. Suddenly, however, a major breakthrough has occurred in one of the least expected and most challenging of U.S. public-education environments. In mid-April, the nation’s largest school system, the nearly one-million-student New York City Schools, announced housing subsidies of up to $14,600 to entice math, science, and special-education teachers to work in the Big Apple’s most challenging schools.

This is one of the most aggressive incentive programs in the nation to address a chronic shortage of qualified educators in these specialties. School officials hope the program will lead immediately to the hiring of an extra 100 teachers next fall and, with other recruitment efforts, ultimately help fill as many as 600 positions now held by teachers who do not have appropriate licenses for the subjects they teach.

Read the entire essay.

What’s New at AIT?

Lively Libraries: Behind the Scenes of Joel’s Library Jam

By Joann Flick, AIT’s Broadcast/Training Specialist

What does a banjo, a screaming rubber chicken, great children’s literature, and useful tips for using your local library have in common? They are all part of the everyday life of Joel Caithamer, the host of the rollicking short segment series, Joel’s Library Jam. CET, Cincinnati’s Educational Television station, and the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library system collaborated to create the series, which was released by AIT in Fall 2005.

Weaving a Web of Community

This project illustrates the dynamic opportunities that grow from the web of community partnerships in southwest Ohio that are actively nurtured by the CET staff. Joel’s Library Jam is the result of a confluence of a previous partnership with the library and the identification of a need by CET’s school building representatives. The PBS Kids project, “Share a Story” was the event that connected Joel and the CET education staff. The station had invited Ohio’s First Lady, Hope Taft, to read at the station, and the library suggested their talented children’s librarian, Joel Caithamer, to add his music and magic performance at the event. Patsy Carruthers, Director of Learning Services at CET, noted that the station’s school building representatives had voiced concerns about reduced access to library services at their school buildings due to shifts and cuts in funding. The staff at CET saw that Joel was a natural choice to address the need to provide a virtual library experience and to encourage youngsters to seek out the library on their own.

At CET, the project has been woven into existing outreach initiatives. The programs model dialogic reading: a strategy that encourages readers to query listeners about the basic content in the story. This helps listeners to relate the story to their own experiences, prompts listeners to reflect about the story, and encourages them to predict what might happen next. CET conducted a series of teacher workshops on dialogic reading using the series. In the workshops, they encouraged teachers to create a library-like atmosphere in their classrooms to mitigate the problems of less access to library services in their schools.

CET also folded information about Joel’s Library Jam into their existing outreach programs, Ready to Learn and First Book. These programs target providers of early childcare and parents. Parents have reported that their children are enthusiastic when they watch the short segments, often getting up and singing with Joel. Children also learn to sit and listen to the story, replicating the positive behaviors modeled by youngsters on screen. CET provided print resources to schools so that they could disseminate materials by sending them home with students. CET’s Kids and Family Web site includes many of Joel’s original songs from the series.

The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Libraries also held their own series of workshops for parents, and their libraries keep copies of Joel’s Library Jam on their shelves so parents can take them home to watch.

Making Partnerships Happen

Partnerships don’t just happen. CET actively nurtures community partnerships both formally and informally. First and foremost, Carruthers notes that the station tries to be involved in partnerships all the time, not just when CET needs something. One way CET follows this mantra is by participating in a regional cultural group, the Arts and Education Directors of Greater Cincinnati. The group meets regularly and actively promotes each others’ activities. Staff at CET are encouraged to serve on committees in the community. CET maintains contact with a representative from each and every school building in southwestern Ohio. This group of 470 representatives is treated to an annual meeting and social event at the station. When CET has information to disseminate to schools, the representatives receive that information and put it directly into the hands of the people who most need it. These strategies have helped CET form a durable web of collaborators and supporters in their community.

Being the Liveliest Librarian

Joel Caithamer is only too eager to use public television to get out the message that libraries can be a fun place. Joel says, “Libraries are a great place to support your natural goofiness.” His high-energy style fits nicely into his job as a children’s librarian. The job is fun and challenging, as he notes: “You can’t fake being a good kid’s librarian.” He is responsible for planning children’s programs, including the regular story hour at the library, where his screaming rubber chicken and banjo are regular features. Joel explains that screaming rubber chickens are made in Cincinnati, and the chicken’s appearance on the shows merely serves to signal a transition and, of course, to have fun.

Joel recalls that his parents had their own reading progress charts at home, where he could earn stars for reading books which ultimately resulted in the award of a new toy. His parents made frequent gifts of books to their children.

While Joel was attending college in Chicago, he took a summer job doing book conservation and later went to work in conservation at the library of The Field Museum. He earned his Master’s of Library Science degree from Indiana University and started his career as a children’s librarian in Crawfordsville, IN.

The music and magic of Joel Caithamer is not only the feature of his story hour and the Joel’s Library Jam programs—Joel also does school and public performances. For more information, see www.joelsings.com. Joel now enjoys reading books to his toddler at home, where the iconic Goodnight, Moon and Hungry Caterpillar are the current favorites. For his own reading, Joel prefers non-fiction. He recently read, and recommends, Hand Cranked Phonographs, by Neil Maken, a chronicle of phonograph history, as well as an old favorite: the poems and illustrations of Shel Silverstein in Where the Sidewalk Ends.

This partnership in Cincinnati has resulted in a new resource available to schools and public broadcasters everywhere. Patsy Carruthers at CET and Joel Caithamer at the Public Library of Cincinnati both agree that future collaborations are desired. Given the enthusiastic response of the community, it’s likely more projects will spring forth.

For more information about Joel’s Library Jam, please contact Joann Flick at jflick@ait.net.

Lessons ALIVE!

Lessons ALIVE!—Free Online Lesson Plans Feature AIT’s Programs

AIT’s Lessons ALIVE! feature provides free lesson plans corresponding to AIT’s products. We give teachers ideas for going beyond our videos’ teacher guides and for developing lesson plans that combine media from different series or select segments from programs. The lesson plans highlighted in Lessons ALIVE! promote contemporary ideas about structured learning environments and model best practices in teaching.

This month we have two new entries emphasizing language arts.

Secret Stories: Exploring the Elements of Folktales and Fables is targeted to students in grades 1–3. It uses programs from Letter TV, Letter TV III, and 16 Tales to encourage students to explore the elements of literature, develop their own unique writing styles, and explore the stories of other cultures.
Brainstorms! Graphic Organizers & the Writing Process is geared to young writers in grades 3–5. You can help students learn how to improve their prewriting skills—designing graphic organizers that spark creativity—by focusing on the mystery genre programs from Club Write Kids and Wordscape.

Check out all of our Lessons ALIVE! lesson plans.

Let us know if you’ve created your own unique lesson plans by submitting them to the Technos e-Zine editor at: editor@ait.net. Selected entries will be published in future issues of the e-Zine.

Tech Notes

What’s Better: Streaming Video or Downloading Video?
A Case Study with Assignment: The World, First Round Results

By Joann Flick, AIT’s Broadcast/Training Specialist

Is it better to be able to view video anytime, from any computer with broadband access, or to download the segment and store the media on a local hard drive to view later? Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, and each has its costs. In an attempt to determine the best video-on-demand format for delivering a weekly instructional video to subscribers’ classrooms, AIT, WXXI (Rochester, NY), and Seattle Community College TV embarked on a year of trials and are midway through an evaluative process. The goal is to determine the most useful delivery mechanism and to contain costs so reasonable subscription fees can be maintained. The partners in this project are keenly interested in the best model to serve teachers and students. This short report presents what we’ve learned so far, and our next steps, leading to decisions that we’ll be making over the summer.

Three years ago, AIT began to offer the long-running WXXI weekly current events show for kids, Assignment: The World (ATW) via a password-protected streaming site that was operated by SCC-TV. Originally, full programs were streamed in Windows Media^®. Use of the site has shown some steady growth, but the total number of users has been disappointing. An analysis by the producers and AIT determined that many schools may not have sufficient bandwidth available during classroom hours. Also, schools are accustomed to recording broadcasts of ATW onto videotape for use in classrooms and may have found the quality of the streamed video lacking or the service unnecessary.

In Fall 2005, a feature that permitted the viewer to see just a single segment from the show was added. Again, use has been increasing but has not yet attained a volume that is satisfactory.

In February-March 2006, the partners piloted a test to offer downloads as well as streamed segments and full programs. Knowing that to provide all three options would needlessly increase costs, the partners sought to find the best option.

An optional survey was promoted to viewers to get input directly from teachers who use the series. The ATW host announced the survey each week during the pilot. The survey attracted 63 responses. Of those, an overwhelming majority preferred to watch the whole program with the whole class at once (86%)—and nearly three-quarters of that group watched the program every week, and 90% watch most or all weeks.

Many teachers (in the range of 38 to 40%) reported that they submit student answers to questions posed in the show, such as the “Clues in the News” segment or the “Weekly Issue Question.” Thirty-eight percent reported that they used scripts provided online, and 40% said they used the www.atwonline.org Web site. Ten percent used email notices from the series producer; only 18% said they used online streaming. Twenty percent received the program on tape, and 21% recorded the program for viewing later.

Of those who had used the online streaming, nearly 70% were “mostly” or “very satisfied” with the service, and 11% reported being “disappointed.”

Online access to the programs is considered “essential” by 28% of the respondents, and “useful” by 40%. The weekly broadcast of the TV show was rated “essential” or “very useful” by 75% of respondents.

Windows Media^® and QuickTime^® were listed as the preferred formats for viewing digital video, although almost half of respondents did not know or did not state a preference.

In response to a question about the problems teachers face in accessing ATW online, teachers did not state a clear preference for downloads over streaming. However, slow connections (30%) or school policies limiting access (25%) were noted as significant problems. A lack of time available in class to use the resource was also cited by nearly one-third of the respondents. Other problems noted include that the streaming format was not reliable, that equipment to project the programs was not available, and that the teacher did not know how to use equipment or access the online programs (responses ranged from 13 to17%).

Respondents represented grades 4–7 and included one home-school mom. The survey participants hailed from Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Iowa, Quebec, North Dakota, Vermont, South Dakota, and New Hampshire. Windows^® operating systems and networks were the most common (42%), but a good number of respondents used Novell^® (9%) or Apple^® (18%) networks and Macintosh^® (18%) operating systems.

It appears that the most important version of Assignment: The World is the television broadcast and that there is no clear preference between downloading or streaming. We suspected that the online version of the program might, eventually, replace the broadcast, but this survey clearly shows that the time for that has not yet arrived. Other online resources, especially the weekly scripts, are very much used and appreciated by our audience.

Our next steps are to convene a focus group of teachers from across the country to revisit these questions and to speak with each broadcast licensee to get their opinions. We want to drill down behind these numbers to see if we can determine, prior to September 2006, whether to stream or to download exclusively.

For schools and teachers that may want to ring in on this issue, please contact Joann Flick at jflick@ait.net.

etc. (News You Need)

A timely update on the condition of public schooling in New Orleans is published in the June 2006 issue of Edutopia, the magazine of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Read “Hard Times in the Big Easy,” by Nancy Rutter Clark.
Sad but true: More Americans voted for the recent American Idol winner than voted for any President in history. What’s going on here? Perhaps a lesson in civics and pop culture might help your students both enjoy TV entertainment and learn a little something about politics. In her essay for Bloomberg News, “How to Top American Idol in Votes in 2008,” columnist Margaret Carlson points out the efforts of a group called Unity08. The organizers’ goal is to give all Americans the chance to choose the next Presidential candidates—and U.S. President. Don’t laugh: Stranger thi ngs have happened. And your students just might relate.
According to the feature article by Michael Sadowski in the May/June 2006 issue of the Harvard Education Letter (HEL), the climate in schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students hasn’t changed much in recent years. It’s still hostile. Although many enlightened school districts try to promote safety, diversity, and tolerance among their student and teacher populations, actions speak lou der than words—and the words are pretty intolerant. You can access HEL, which is published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, online. The article “Making Schools Safer for LGBT Youth” is available for a small fee of $7.00 per copy at the HEL Web site. For more information on this topic, go to the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
The Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program—yes, THAT Jordan: Michael—supports education through “portion[s] of the proceeds from the purchase of JORDAN products.” This year, “JORDAN has earmarked 200 Fundamentals grants for teachers impacted directly by hurricanes Rita and Katrina, regardless of free/reduced lunch program eligibility.” Deadline for application is June 30, 2006. Other educational grant programs are also available, and downloadable .pdf applications can be accessed at the JORDAN JumpMan23 site.
The Coalition of Essential Schools will hold its 20th annual Fall Forum in Chicago on Nov. 3 and 4, 2006. Titled “Many Voices, Common Principles: The Power to Transform,” conference content strands include: Teaching, Learning, & Assessment; School Culture, Practices, & Design; Leadership; and Community Connections. Proposals for workshops and interest group gatherings are due on June 12. For more information, including proposal forms, registration particulars, and run-downs on past conferences, go to: http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/fforum/fforum.html.
The May 2006 issue of AASA’s The School Administrator features the Web, blogging, and the use and abuse of the Internet in school settings. One article by a couple of attorneys gives practical suggestions as to how administrators should deal with questionable actions by school staff and students in the electronic communications sphere. Read “Abuse in Cyberspace,” by Robert W. Ashmore and Brian M. Herman.

AIT Products & Services

Logo AIT's Spring Science Special is still in effect, through the end of June. Our Minds on Science DVD will be available for only $39.95. Hurry to order before this special expires!

These other specials are running through June, too:

Get ’em while they’re hot!

Batter up!! 108 Stitches: The Physics in Baseball illustrates complex physics concepts within the familiar context of the all-American game of Baseball: The Pitch, The Hit, Running the Bases, and The Flight (of the ball). Four 7-minute programs for grades 6–12 available on DVD or VHS. Visit the 108 Stitches Web site.
Joel’s Library Jam premiers this month…18 five-minute programs for grades K–2; closed captioned; available on VHS and DVD. Joel is a lively librarian and musician who introduces kids to the wonders of the library. This collection of short segments addresses key curriculum standards in language arts for understanding how to use a community library and enjoy the resources that are found there. Not just for quiet reading, libraries are rich cultural resources teeming with fun opportunities, just around the corner. Visit Joel’s Library Jam Web site for more.
Assignment: The World is now available to any classroom via Internet streaming on the World Wide Web. School subscriptions are just $10 per episode; $320 per year. Assignment: The World is a weekly 15-minute update on global news created specifically for use in grades 4–7. Oral and written language, map skills, history, culture, math, and science concepts are all interwoven in the context of real world events. Check it out here: www.atwonline.org.
Inventing Flight for Schools is correlated to national and state education standards. It guides students through the science and history behind the Wright Brothers’ invention of powered flight. Students learn key science concepts and processes by flying kites, testing gliders, and experimenting with helicopter propellers . . . then analyzing their results. Six 10-minute programs for grades 6–8 available on both VHS and DVD.

* Before you sign off here, be sure to check out the AIT Resources for Teachers & Students section of our main Web site. It provides linked resources for educators who use our products.

Read previous issues of the TECHNOS e-Zine.