Author: Ogo Okoye-johnson

Obama Education Department to Spend $4.2 Million to Help States Create Teacher Assignment Equity Plans

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 3 Comments

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 required all states to file an equity plan that explains their teacher assignments in order to ensure that strong teachers are placed in struggling schools and in schools in high poverty areas. However, 2006 is the last year that most states have submitted their plans. According to Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education in a call with reporters on Monday, “We are all dismayed by the lack of compliance. We’re saying this is critical for us.”

$4.2 million will be spent by the Obama Education Department to provide  “technical assistance network” that will help states and districts develop and implement equity plans that highlight the causes of “their “excellent” teacher imbalance, craft a strategy to correct the problem and publicly report their progress”.

Single Sex Education: A Solution For Low Achieving Inner-City Public Schools?

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 3 Comments

Single sex-education in public kindergarten through twelfth grade schools is a fairly new concept. During the past decade, there has been a remarkable increased interest in offering single-sex education in the United States K-12 public schools. The increase in single-sex education could be partly attributed to the May 2002 former President Bush’s proposal to spend $385 million from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001’s allocation to create separate schools for boys and girls. The Bush administration’s proposal appeared to be in conflict with the 1972’s Title IX regulation 34 CFR106.34 which mandates that schools receiving federal funds shall not create programs and activities on the basis of sex except in cases of few contact sports, sex-education classes, remedial or affirmative action (Bronski, 2002). The appearance of the stated conflict reduced the surge to create single-sex education schools and classes as school districts across the nation cautiously awaited clarification from the Bush administration. The clarification came when the U.S. Department of Education issued final regulations that make it legal to educate boys and girls separately under certain conditions effective November 24, 2006.
The regulations are the U.S. Department of Education’s interpretation of the 1972’s Title IX regulation 34 CFR106.34 federal statute. The Education Department also emphasized that single-sex education is completely voluntary for districts and schools. Stephanie J. Monroe, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, stated in a conference call with reporters in November 2006, “This is not a federal mandate. This is an option that can be helpful to some students.” Single-sex education is designed to offer parents more choices in public education (Davis, 2006).
One of the reasons for the rise of these schools and classes is the belief that single-sex education will bring about substantial changes in the academic performance of under-performing public schools which are mostly located in the American inner cities. Proponents of single-sex education believe that high dropout rates and discipline problems stemming from interaction between boys and girls will be reduced in single-sex classrooms and schools, thereby leaving room for higher student achievement. Some schools that have experienced success at varying degrees with single-sex education are spread across several cities in the United States such as Boynton Beach, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Seattle, Washington.
This paper analyzed the historical background, policies, regulations, practices, challenges and successes of single-sex education in the United States K-12 public schools. The effects of single-sex education on student achievement, with emphasis on under achieving inner-city public schools were focused on. The academic research suggests positive educational benefits of single-sex schooling for girls (if not affluent), at-risk students, and African-American and Hispanic students (regardless of sex). Further, white males either benefit slightly or at worst realize a neutral outcome.

Steve Zimmer Calls on Billionaires to Help Kids Instead of Fighting for Control

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 2 Comments

It is very poignant that the funds that are usually spent on election campaigns are more than enough to effect drastic improvement on the quality of education for all K-16 students nationwide.

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Millions on millions have been spent by billionaires to push through their agenda of privatization and to disrupt entire school districts, on the assumption that disruption is “creative.” No doubt, they are getting ready for the next elections, opening their wallets to anyone who promises to open more nonunion charters and to attack due process for teachers. In this statement, Steve Zimmer–who overcame a billionaire-funded candidate in his last election for the Los Angeles school board–calls for a truce. He asks the billionaires to work together with school leaders to make schools better for children, instead of squandering more millions to “win.” Win or lose, the problems for the kids remains the same. Why not collaborate and do what is best for them, which is not political but consists of meeting their needs for smaller class size, medical care, the arts, librarians, social workers, and the same kind of education…

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Franchesca Warren: Time for Teachers and Administrators to Speak Out!

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 2 Comments

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Franchesca Warren is outraged by “the deadening silence of teachers.” Teachers are afraid to say what they know and believe for fear of being fired.

She writes:

“As a pretty opinionated teacher, I am always full of ideas and speak out regularly against practices that are unjust or not beneficial to students. However, time and time again I have been “scolded” by more veteran teachers who warn me that being vocal would quickly get me “blackballed” in the district. This fact was even more evident when I was invited to a private screening of a new documentary entitled “Scapegoats.” The film uses teacher interviews to examine how teachers have historically been made to be the scapegoats with anything bad that occurs in education. While I was in total agreement with what was being said in the document, I was dismayed that more than half of the teachers interviewed opted…

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The Relative Effectiveness of On-Line Instruction in High Schools

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 3 Comments

The demand for online instruction in high schools across the nation continues to rise with each year prompting the development of new on-line programs and courses. Online instruction on one hand is believed to increase the accessibility of educational opportunities for students who would otherwise not attend school for several reasons as well as give students an opportunity to increase their marketability through use of up-to-date technology. On the other hand, some believe that the human interaction between the instructor and the students and the interaction amongst students which are critical parts of an educational process are minimal or almost non-existent, therefore, lowering academic standards. This paper discusses the relative effectiveness of on-line instruction in high schools and its implications on students’ academic achievement.

Does Multicultural Education Improve Students’ Racial Attitudes? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 5 Comments

The effects of multicultural education on the racial attitudes of students in prekindergarten through twelfth grade are examined in this meta-analysis. Multicultural education was operationalized for this study as programs and curricula dealing with racial and cultural diversity. The effect sizes of curricular intervention and reinforcement dimensions of multicultural education in suburban and urban settings among age groups 3-8 and 9-16 were compared to see the relative effectiveness of multicultural education on students’ racial attitudes. The mean effect size of 0.488 from a total of 60 effect sizes calculated using 30 studies shows that exposure to multicultural education led to a reduction in students’ racial attitudes. However, the mean effect size of 0.645 from curricular intervention studies was higher than the mean effect size of the reinforcement studies at 0.08, indicating that the curricular intervention dimension of multicultural education was more effective in reducing students’ racial attitudes. Multicultural education was more effective in reducing racial attitudes in urban areas with a mean effect size of 0.72, than in suburban areas with a mean effect size of 0.587. Multicultural education was also more effective in reducing racial attitudes among the 9-16 age group with a mean effect size of 0.751, than among the 3-8 age group with a mean effect size of 0.208. Implications for research and for practice with emphasis on closing the achievement gap that exists among the various student subgroups primarily in under achieving inner-city public schools are discussed.

Intangible Heritage of Standard English Learners The “Invisible” Subgroup in the United States of America? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap

/ Ogo Okoye-johnson / 4 Comments

 

Standard English Learners (SELs) are ethnic minority native speakers of English whose mastery of the “standard English language” used in the curriculum of schools is limited due to their use of ethnic-specific nonstandard dialect. Research in language development highlights language as a tool that allows the individual access to basic civil rights and opportunities in the area of politics, economics, and education. A correlation exists between proficiency in the use of Standard English and academic achievement, thereby highlighting the importance of validating the intangible language heritage that these students bring to the school environment while they are schooled in the use of Standard English.