Desegregation is Alive in Louisville

Last June, when the Supreme Court decided that the desegregation plans of Louisville, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington, violated the Constitution, many people said desegregation was, for all intents and purposes, dead. But Louisville may have found a way to revive it.

The court ruling was a five-to-four decision, and the fifth vote came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote his own opinion. He said "race conscious measures" could pass muster if they didn't involve the race of the individual student.

How can you desegregate without taking into account the race of the student? It's not as impossible as it sounds. And ironically, it works because so many neighborhoods in America are extremely segregated.

Louisville's new plan assigns students based on the neighborhood they live in, not the race of the student. But that's almost the same thing because the neighborhoods are mostly segregated.

The plan also takes into account the neighborhood's family income and education level, not just race. But that's not why Louisville lawyers think it will satisfy Justice Kennedy. They think he will approve because the new plan doesn't assign a child on the basis of that child's race.

The plan is to have every school enroll between 15 and 50 percent students from neighborhoods that are low in education and income, and high in the percentage of minority residents. Everyone in a neighborhood, regardless of race, will be treated alike.

The Jefferson County Teachers Association, which represents the Louisville teachers, supports this new approach, and believes it can serve as a national model, says JCTA President Brent McKim.

But Louisville has a big advantage over many other urban areas: The center city and the suburbs are in the same district: Jefferson County. If the suburbs were in a separate district, there wouldn't be enough white kids in the city to integrate the schools. That's the situation in many big cities, and it's one of the main reasons America's schools were resegregating even before the last Supreme Court decision.

--Alain Jehlen

Online Videos More than Fun & Games

The last time I wrote in this space, I let you know abut goofy dances teachers have been doing with students in their classrooms -- all captured, for better or worse, on YouTube. Today, I'll share with you some online videos that feature educators in a more... well, let's just say a more mature and perhaps "professional" light.

Exhibit A: TeacherTube

Check out this YouTube-inspired video sharing Web sites for teachers, where you'll find videos designed by educators, for educators. As of December 2007, the site boasted more than 9,000 videos, which have been viewed by more than 40,000 visitors (so says the New York Daily News).

Interested in phonics, spelling, and literacy? Check out the Reading Channel. Want professional development and best practices? There's that too, plus science, math, p.e. and more. Ever found yourself wondering how to make "slime" or curious about tectonic plate boundaries? Don't worry; there are videos to help.

I wasn't able to find any Soulja Boy dance videos (most readers will find this a great relief), but I did find an example of the Alabama Coushatta War Dance, entertaining in its own right. Other videos range from silly to boring to motivational. With that said, TeacherTube isn't exempt from the goofy. As long as there are places for teachers to share their own videos, there will be gems like this one: "Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap."

Bullied for Being Gay

Bullying and harassing students for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is common. Referred to collectively as GLBT, these students are five times more likely than the general campus population to skip school due to safety concerns. Some even drop out due to continued harassment.

According to a National School Climate Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, almost 38 percent of GLBT students experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and 26 percent on the basis of how they express their gender. Nearly one-fifth, almost 18 percent, of students reported being physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation.

For more, see NEA's "Strengthening the Learning Environment: A School Employee's Guide to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues." The guide was developed to help Association members and staff who may confront issues involving GLBT students or colleagues, or who may encounter bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity

--John Rosales

Happy Birthday?

Last week, "No Child Left Behind" turned six years old, a ripe old age by the standards of education reform waves. Old enough so we ought to be able to tell whether it's working. NCLB was going to make plain the flaws of American schools and apply the necessary pressure to make them shape up. One out of every four schools was unable to meet "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) last year, and one in seven was in "improvement" or "corrective action," which makes them subject to punishment if they receive federal Title I funds.

So is all that shaming and punishing helping kids?

Many teachers across the country complain that the law has undercut the teaching of important but untested subjects, like art and history. And many teachers hate the focus on test scores. On the other hand, some teachers do say that the pressure has focused their schools more clearly on educating children who have been low achievers.

But we also have hard, quantitative data to look at: If the measure of success is test scores, are the test scores rising?

For the answer, you can't just look at the state tests. Testing experts agree that when passing a particular test becomes very important, teachers tailor their teaching to that test and scores rise, without necessarily reflecting any real improvement that would help a child later in life. So we need to see increases in other tests that measure reading and math skills, not just the state tests. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fits the bill. NAEP is the only national achievement test. And researchers have done extensive research on how NAEP scores have changed.

Depending on the way you look at the data--which subjects, which subgroups, which ages--researchers have found different results: a little up, a little down. But nobody has found any major impact. No jump in the scores. No collapse, either. If you didn't know that a major change is going on in American education, you would never guess it from the NAEP scores.

There have been other periods which did see dramatic changes. During the 1970's and early 1980's, the achievement gap between African-American and White students was cut nearly in half. Even the most ardent pro-NCLB spin masters would have to agree that nothing like that is happening today.

Before NCLB took effect, there was already research on the effectiveness of high-stakes testing. Some states had high-stakes tests, others didn't. By comparing changes in scores in those two sets of states, researchers could see whether high-stakes tests raise scores.

Just like now, that earlier research turned up small declines here, small increases there, but found no major improvement. It may seem counterintuitive, but the evidence is strong that high-stakes testing does not make a whole lot of difference to test scores.

NCLB insists that teaching strategies must be backed by data. The term "scientifically based research" appears 111 times in the text. Doesn't it make sense to apply that idea to the law itself?

--Alain Jehlen

You can take the kid out of the hood. And you should.

We all know poor children do worse, on average, in school. Countless studies tell us so. But a new study suggests the problem isn't just poverty -- it's where poverty forces these children to live.

Poor neighborhoods are occasionally violent, racially and ethnically segregated, with few "good" schools or safe places to play, and the place itself has a negative effect on ability, according to a new study from three universities.

Researchers looked at more than 2,000 Black children in Chicago, testing them over seven years, and found that ones from poor neighborhoods did worse on verbal and cognitive tests than those from better neighborhoods -- even if the children had the same family income. The difference, after two years, was about four IQ points or a whole year in school.

Part of the problem, researchers said, is that parents may "hunker down" in a poor neighborhood, out of fear. Their children don't get exposed to as many verbal encounters and good communication models.

Read the whole study here.

--Mary Ellen Flannery

NEA Members Flood Us With Response to Student Loan Piece

Talk about their money and NEA members will talk back. Educators from across the country are responding to our January story, "My Debt, My Life," about the staggering student loan debt that prospective and current teachers are amassing. Most troubling is that debt is scaring qualified teaching candidates away from the profession, or causing active teachers to abandon the classroom for other professions.

Even for NEA members whose student loan debts are long ago paid off (or were never accrued in the first place) the debt is having an impact. Association activists tell us in the piece that they're having a harder and harder time getting young people to understand the benefits of membership because they are so distracted by their loan debt

Many members shared their own student loan debt stories. Writes New York City member Audrey Padilla:

"When I read your article, tears ran down my cheeks. I realized how much Iwasn't alone. It's so unfortunate that so many talented teachers continue to struggle financially to pay back student loans, while doing something they value as a profession. I owe about $85,000 in student loans. Out of desperation, I wrote to my local representatives for help, and posted a website to ask for donations, but nothing came out of these efforts. Although, I'm still trying to be optimistic, positive thinking can only take you so far. I wish members of Congress could see the unfortunate situation that many of our nation's teachers are facing, and understand that not addressing this issue will only scare off our teachers of tomorrow."

Others contended that teachers with student loan debt knew or should have known what they were getting into when they signed their paperwork and took the money. Writes retired teacher James Pharris of Whites Creek, Tennessee:

"Are these "stressed out students" (my description) living in economically available housing, using public transportation, etc.? How much of their income do they use for cell phones, eating out, alcoholic drinks, attending movies, concerts or ball games. The bottom line seems to me that young people of today have been taught no responsibility, achieve immediate gratification, and have certainly not been taught or have not learned to use their money wisely. They certainly have not been taught patience."

As with the young NEA members interviewed in the story, several letter writers reiterated that no matter how much of a struggle life with the debt is, they believe it's worth it to keep them doing a job they love. Writes 37-year-old Kristina Bogner, 37, a Corona, California, high school teacher with $40,000 in student loans:

"I don't look at it as debt, I look at it as an investment in my future. Some people might think nothing of spending that kind of money on a car, a recreational vehicle, or a vacation. Who can argue that one's education is the most important investment of them all? I don't regret taking out student loans at all. I gladly write that check every month and it is a reminder that I followed my dream and am living it! Oh, and by the way, the interest is all tax-deductible."

Click here to share your own student loan stories, give feedback on the "My Life, My Debt" story, or respond to what readers are saying about it in our NEA forum.

--Cynthia Kopkowski