Global Strategies

Provide "real world, engaging opportunities" for high school students

Whether Portland Public Schools budgets in 2013-14 for all students to have at least seven classes out of eight periods or not, most students will still have at least one unfilled period. As Lincoln High School Principal Peyton Chapman explains above, PPS, with much community help, could be much more creative in what it offers students in those empty periods. Student could be offered a broad array of community based activities for which they would receive high school credit.

Beyond that I wished PPS would look to community members to do even more. I like the Boy Scout program of merit badges, which relies on community mentors, and think something similar to their merit badge program could be adapted to high school education.

PPS should provide, as Chapman says, “real world, engaging opportunities for our kids, where they can earn credit, and not put that all on study center monitors”

For now, forget 7 classes for all high school students

Bowing to the organized political pressure from parents of high schoolers, PPS Superintendent Carole Smith offered an alternative 2013-14 budget proposal that would provide seven classes to all high school students. The cuts needed to balance the additional high schools spending are in the above video. The new budget proposal is covered in the Oregonian article “Portland Public Schools adds more high school teachers to budget proposal after parental outcry” by Nicole Dungca (here):

Superintendent Carole Smith added 58 high school teaching positions to her initial budget proposal on Monday after parents publicly decried a schedule that doesn't allow most students to have a full school day.

A group of high school parents have been speaking out against Smith's initial $466 million proposal and its staffing allocation for weeks, protesting the staffing allocation with an eight-period schedule that mandates crowded study halls or free periods for a number of students. Resources and a ruling on a teacher's contract prevents most students from taking eight classes on the alternating block schedule.

The parents' concerns -- backed up by three board members -- led Smith to allocate 11 additional positions to high schools last week, but the superintendent halted finalizing staffing after community members pushed for even more teachers. On Monday, Smith came back to the board with 47 more full-time positions, using money carved out of other areas in the budget….

It is a selfish proposal, putting the interests of high schoolers ahead of the broader interests of all students in the system. It is a stupid proposal, taking resources away from younger students and a number of important strategic learning initiatives just to give some high schoolers, already having six classes, a seventh class. And it is a backward looking proposal, keeping PPS high schools mired in the traditional past rather than moving forward towards a high school program design rich with out-of-school offerings, including more independent online courses, paid high school study abroad offerings, and a whole new variety of community mentored activities.

Yes, it would be great to have more funding and to be able to put more general resources into high schools. But adding a seventh class for all students who already have six just because some parents want PPS to babysit their children more completely is not the way to go.

The PPS Board should reject this alternative and approve the original budget proposal.

Lincoln PTA President : "“Now is the time for real reform, to improve our schools, not weaken them"

The Lincoln High School PTA president has a guest opinion in the Oregonian calling for every high school student to have minimum of seven classes, as in (here): “Every high school student deserves to take class when school is in session, to take a minimum of seven classes. They need a longer school year and more instructional hours, not fewer.”

And:

And this year I am shocked to see the proposals from the district, which continue what were "drastic, temporary cuts" to high schools -- keep class sizes large, continue to decrease instructional hours, force kids to have late starts and early dismissals and thus lose valuable days of instruction ... do it for the schools that have increased enrollment, that have successful test scores, that are the flagship schools -- the ones that are used to show "how great PPS is" as well as struggling schools, those where the graduation rates are abysmally low -- where dropping out is a common occurrence. Our goal should be to keep kids in school, to educate them -- not to force them out of the building or into worthless study halls.

And there are those slightly concealed warnings: “We have seen our friends and neighbors begin to "flee" to private schools” and “If my husband and I were searching for a place to move and a public school to educate our kids today, I would no longer choose Portland.”

First, she is writing to Portland Public Schools saying “Now is the time for real reform, to improve our schools, not weaken them. It is your job to make this happen.” I agree with that tone and sentiment. PPS needs to make changes.

But, second, I do not agree with the Lincoln PTA president on priorities going forward. Within the current funding constraints, PPS needs many more dual-language immersion programs, more uses of technology with online learning opportunities, paid high school study abroad opportunities, and more resources in the underperforming schools. It needs these far more than adding another class per student at the high school level. PPS should not be funding additional high school classes when it still has third graders who cannot read. Once sufficient resources begin to flow to PPS, high school students can have seven or eight classes and the whole K-12 curriculum can be enriched. But we are not there yet.

Third: if the affluent want to put their students in private schools, they can and will. If they do so because PPS high school students have six instead of seven high school classes, they are not as smart as they probably think they are. If they do so because PPS does not have enough dual-language immersion programs or a paid high school study abroad program, I understand (they can find private dual language immersion programs and pay for high school years abroad for their students).

Fourth, if PPS is to be “a great urban school district,” it will be because of the increased learning and achievement of those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder not of just those at the top and because PPS has adapted its curriculum to the technology and economics of our times.

Going forward should not be about restoring the prior status quo but about change.

“It starts with them being functional readers by third grade.”

Let us double down on third grade reading. In PPS, let us get to more than 95% of third grade students at or exceeding the reading benchmark in each of our schools. It is the most important education object to meet. As Rudy Crew says in the above video, “it starts with them being functional readers by third grade.”

PPS does have budget choices to make whatever its final funding figure turns out to be. One of the choices promoted by many parents of high school students is to add back some high school classes so as to reduce the one or two periods out of eight periods that their students are without a class/teacher. I just do not see providing a 7^th or 8^th high school class to many students to be as important as getting as many third graders reading as possible. If we are going to reform the educational system, we have to make changes. We need to focus on getting all students to read.

These are the PPS schools which in 2011-12 had third grade reading benchmark scores below the statewide average of  78%: 75.7%  Buckman, 75% Arleta, 70.2% Whitman, 68.8% Pennisula, 68.0% Kelly, 68.0 Self Enhancement Academy, 65.7% Beach, 63.6% Faubion, 62.0% Portland Village School, 61.4% James John, 60.0% Alliance, 58.8 Woodlawn, 58.5% Rigler, 58.1% Grout, 58.1% Marysville, 56.5% Bridger, 56.3 Woodmere, 55.8% Vestal, 53.7% Lee, 53.3% Boise-Eliot/Humboldt, 53.0 Lent, 50.0 Vernon, 45.0% Ockley Green, 43.7% Rosa Parks, 41.8% Cesar Chavez, 41.7% Sitton, and 34.0% Scott. We cannot be satisfied with the current situation.

I would put almost every additional dollar that can be found and shifted in the Superintendent Smith’s budget proposal into these schools for literacy efforts.

"The modern Chinese woman"

From the Shaighaiist abridged except from the fourth chapter, titled “The Modern Chinese Woman,” of the book “The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that will Dirupt the World” by Shaun Rein (here):

New job opportunities, better access to education, and more equal positions in family life are creating a modern Chinese woman. No longer trapped in the countryside, where it is difficult to earn subsistence wages, they are working in well-paying jobs that allow them to save and empower them with unprecedented choices when they consume, be it a new house or the latest trends.

Whether it is the waitress-turned-entrepreneur Amy, white- collar businesswoman Melanie, the masseuse Julie, or the maid Little Qian, the modern Chinese woman is using her newfound wealth and position to influence consumption habits and change how brands need to approach the Chinese market. For brands like Laura Furniture, which need to convert factories from focusing on production for export to America to selling into China, or simply for brands looking to offset dwindling growth in America and Europe, understanding how the modern Chinese woman shops is critical. They not only have money, but they influence major household purchases, like automobiles and real estate, that were traditionally the male domain.

And:

They shop in a way that mirrors the shape of an hourglass. They either buy luxury products, or the cheapest products in categories they do not value. Brands positioned in the middle level, like Gap, get lost in the drive for Louis Vuitton or the cheapest items possible.

If there is a drawback to all of the love and attention being showered on Chinese women, it is that many in urban areas are becoming spoiled to a dangerous extent. Part of the problem is that parents who suffered during the Cultural Revolution don’t want their daughters to go through any hardship. They indulge their little princesses, rather than help them learn how to over- come any obstacles they might face on their own.

When the going gets tough, many parents teach their daughters it is better to get going and to run away from difficulties. When a job gets too hard or the hours too long, parents often support the mentality of quitting the job and finding another, perhaps in a state-owned enterprise where salaries are high and hours short. In interview after interview with multinational executives in China, I heard complaints about all of the other- wise bright and talented young Chinese women—and men, in many instances—who were unwilling and unable to tackle serious challenges. At some point decades from now, their lack of grit and determination to overcome challenges, and their willingness to take on debt, might cause China to face some of the same challenges that America is now.

"Asians have become a majority in more than half a dozen cities in the San Gabriel Valley"

From the NY Times article “New Suburban Dream Born of Asia and Southern California” by Jennifer Medina (here):

Asians have become a majority in more than half a dozen cities in the San Gabriel Valley in the last decade, creating a region of Asian-dominated suburbs that stretches for nearly 30 miles east of Los Angeles. In the shopping centers, Chinese-language characters are on nearly every storefront, visible from the freeways that cut through the area.

Monterey Park, a middle-class city that began attracting Asian immigrants more than a generation ago, is still widely seen as the area’s center and retail hub. But as Asians have continued to arrive in Southern California, they have moved into some of the most exclusive cities in Los Angeles County, making up more than 60 percent of the population in San Gabriel and Walnut, along the county’s eastern edge.

Many of the immigrants come here from China and Taiwan, where they were part of a highly educated and affluent population. They have eagerly bought property in places like San Marino, where the median income is nearly double that of Beverly Hills and is home to one of the highest-performing school districts in the state. The local library now offers story time in Mandarin.

But the wealth is not uniform, and there are pockets of poverty in several of the area’s working-class suburbs, particularly in Vietnamese and Filipino communities.

“This is kind of ground zero for a new immigrant America,” said Daniel Ichinose, a demographer at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. “You have people speaking Mandarin and Vietnamese and Spanish all living together and facing many common challenges.”

The children of the immigrants who began transforming the area a generation ago are beginning to come of age, becoming cheerleaders for the region, running for political office and creating businesses that cater to a distinctly American-born audience.

There are countless stores that display signs in Mandarin, sell restaurant supplies and Chinese herbs, or advertise acupuncture or brokerage services. But perhaps the most common storefront is the boba tea shop, where young patrons spend hours drinking cold milk tea with jellylike tapioca balls. Nearly every one of the region’s hundreds of strip malls boasts a cafe — or even two — offering a dizzying number of variations on the sweet drink.

China to add more aircraft carriers

China has announced it will build more aircraft carriers. This is curious since China has developed anti-ship missiles that make carriers more vulnerable and, therefore, less useful. From Bloomberg.com (here):

China unveiled plans to build more aircraft carriers after commissioning its first last year, as the country extends its influence amid territorial disputes with neighbors including Japan and Vietnam.

Future aircraft carriers will carry more fighter jets than the Liaoning, Rear Admiral Song Xue told foreign military attaches yesterday in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua New Agency. The carrier was built around a Soviet-era hull and began trials at sea last year.

The remarks signal that the People’s Liberation Army will push ahead with a modernization plan under which defense spending has more than doubled since 2006. China has been more assertive in pressing sovereignty claims against Japan as well as Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

“This only adds publicly to what many believed to be the case: that the Liaoning is a training or ‘starter’ carrier and eventually China would build larger and more capable ones,” Taylor Fravel, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on China’s relations with its neighbors, said by e-mail. “It suggests that today’s PLA is much more confident than in the past regarding its willingness to talk about future military programs.”.....

 

Schwarzman establishes high level study in China program

Big news recently in the study abroad in China field. From the Evan Osnos blog post “Rhodes East: Why is the Schwarzman Scholarship in China?” (here):

This week, Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman and chief executive of the Blackstone Group, invoked Rhodes’s gift as the inspiration behind a large new scholarship for study not in America but in China. He is hoping that familiarity with the world’s rising superpower will blunt growing American anxiety about changes in status. “Anger can lead to trade problems, and ultimately to military confrontation,” he told me. “We had to find a way to stop or ameliorate that situation.” The scholarship will draw two hundred students a year to a one-year English-language master’s program at a dedicated new college inside Tsinghua University. Twenty per cent of the winners will be from China, forty-five per cent from America, and the remainder from elsewhere. Schwarzman is giving a hundred million of a personal fortune estimated at $6.5 billion, and raising another two hundred million largely from blue-chip companies with big investments in China, to create an endowment that the Times calls “one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China.”

Note that although the program is in China, it will be in English. But Schwarzman’s reasons are right on:  we need leaders in the US and elsewhere who will understand China better. Again from Osnos’ interview:

But the world has certainly changed, and one of the things that was really driving me to do this is that I could see the negative attitudes that people had toward China were bubbling. The financial crisis, where growth rates in Europe went to zero or worse— everything went down; jobs in the United States have been very slow to come back. By the same token, in China they’re growing, at that point, nine per cent a year. And meanwhile the West is quite damaged and remains damaged from a job-creation point of view.

And I was convinced that that would create frustration in the West, and frustration would lead to anger, and that anger can lead to trade problems, and ultimately to military confrontation. And if China was going to grow at two to three times the [rate of] so-called developed countries, that within two decades, if those trends continue, they’d go from the No. 2 economy in the world to the No. 1, and whatever problems you are seeing today in these areas of frustration would be that much greater. And at a certain point, it seemed logical to me that you’d start to have some really bad things with a much higher probability of occurring. We had to find a way to stop or ameliorate that situation.

And I looked at this idea, this type of program, as a way to produce people who would have that kind of understanding of China that they wouldn’t have had, as they go back to their regular lives—to observe what’s happening in China and interpret it to their constituencies and their industries and their world. This network, at maturity, will be ten thousand kids; some will be seventy-five years old, but that’s a lot of people, spread around the world at a very high level. And so they can react to China, interpret what they’re doing. They can tell the Chinese that they’ve overdone it in certain cases, and they can also form their own global network to deal with other issues, whether they’re global or bilateral, because they’ll know people who are, I guess you would say, more kindred souls, who have a shared experience. So that’s what’s behind this.

Closing the Sunnyside Environmental School?

In Portland Public Schools, there is tension between neighborhood schools and focus option schools, including dual-language immersion programs. Neighborhood school activists protest any additional focus option or immersion school that will draw students away from neighborhood schools, making them less viable and potential candidates for merger or closure. Meanwhile, there is now an increased concern for racial equity across the district. Neither the focus option schools nor the system of neighborhood schools have a good record of racial equity. And focus option schools with sibling preference transfer priorities and historically nearly-all White students just cannot adapt. This is the backdrop to the video above and the request by the Sunnyside Environmental School to no longer be a focus option school. Forced to take in neighborhood students and stuck with sibling preferences, they just had no future

In 2012-13, the Sunnyside Environmental School enrollment was 81.7% White, 1.3% Black, 2.3% Asian, and 6.0% Hispanic.

Stanford educators miss significance of Utah's dual-language immersion expansion

Stanford educators are putting on a three day national seminar for the Education Writers Association. Oregonian reporter Betsy Hammond is there and sending back dispatches. But the sponsoring Stanford educators must live in a different economic dimension from me. They must have missed Al Gore’s latest book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, in which he writes: “The global economy is being transformed by changes far greater in speed and scale than any in human history.” Their seminar does have Tom Friedman, he-of-the-flat earth, speaking, so maybe he mentions global economic changes and how the U.S. should respond. But, in all their many agenda topics (here), the Stanford educators overlook the most significant change taking place in American education today: the continuing expansion, heading for mainstreaming, in the State of Utah of dual-language immersion programs.

Now the Common Core, teacher evaluations, closing the achievement gap, STEM, standardized tests, etc., are all important issues and program agenda items, but they appear quite different in the context of an education system shifting to mainstreaming dual-language immersion programs in a variety of foreign languages.

Just for the Stanford educators, here is the U. S. National Intelligence Council’s chart on where the future markets for U.S. goods and services will be:

And as an extra bonus, because the Stanford educators seem unaware of what happening in Utah, here again is Utah’s video report.