February 24, 2008 - March 1, 2008 Archives

I traveled to Tampa last week to attend the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) conference and I have a prediction to make: Daniel Pink will be the new Thomas Friedman.

As you certainly already know, Friedman and his book, The World Is Flat, have dominated education discussion for years, with his galvanizing message about the realities of globalization.

Pink is poised to take the conversation further. Granted, Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, has not sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for a year, the way Friedman’s did.

That notwithstanding, nearly everyone I bumped into or stood in line with at the AASA conference was talking about Pink. His keynote speech was packed.

Pink says that the skills we emphasize heavily in schools – the so-called left brain skills like logic, computation, and linear thinking – are not as important in the new global economy as the right-brain skills like creativity, design, and big-picture thinking.

Left-brain skills are still important, he says, but the right-brain stuff is essential. Put another way: Left-brain skills are the easiest to automate or outsource. The ability to design, create, interpret, and make connections – not so easy for a computer to master.

I confess that my over-developed right brain was cheering Pink on, while my puny left brain couldn’t put up much of a fight.

This was the second time I’d heard Pink speak. He’s an engaging and entertaining speaker, and clearly his message is resonating with educators, school leaders, and parents weary of the constant grind of standardized testing and drill-and-kill curriculum.

In case you missed him, Pink will speak at the National School Boards Association’s conference in Orlando in March. Check him out: Your right brain will be thrilled.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

Stuck on the fourth floor

Something called “Counseling” occupied a fourth-floor warren of my aging high school in suburban St. Louis. Whenever I was on that floor -- which wasn’t often, as it had a depressing, “attic-y” kind of feel -- I might see an adult or two emerge from those offices, but I could only guess at what they did.

I learned a little more during my junior year, when Mr. P., my patrician English teacher (who, I discovered at about that moment, doubled as one of those mysterious counselors) sat me down for my “College Conference” and announced where I should go to school.

“University of Rochester!”

In the end, I didn’t follow his advice, although I’m sure the University of Rochester is a fine place (albeit a trifle chilly). No, I went instead to sunny Southern California -- “for the surfing,” as I recall; though when I arrived I realized the area around the school had no water to speak of, merely miles of desert and craggy mountains that revealed their outlines only when the smog began to clear.

As Bogey put it in Casablanca: “I was misinformed.”

I tell this story to show how far the field of school counseling and mental health services has come since I was in school. Certainly, the defects in my high school counseling program are obvious now, with the most blatant being…. well, I didn’t even know what counselors did! That’s how marginalized they were from the core mission of the school.

Unfortunately, as I show in my March cover story on school mental health, the work of counselors, school psychologists, and social workers is still too often relegated to a kind of ancillary status in the school. But that’s changing. In places like Harrisburg, Pa., the schools aren’t just trying to help students with specific behavioral problems (an important job, to be sure) but also addressing the emotional and behavioral health needs of all students.

It shouldn’t be an either/or proposition: either provide services to students with serious problems or serve the whole school, says Howard Adelman, co-director of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. Instead, schools must adopt a “comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive approach that can effectively address barriers to learning,” says the center publication Mental Health in Schools: Much More Than Services for a Few. “To do less is to make values such as 'We want all children to succeed' and 'No child left behind' simply rhetorical statements.”

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Journalists—at least the ones I know—tend to forget stories shortly after they are published. But occasionally there’s one so compelling that you have to go back.

I first heard about Brick Township, N.J., a decade ago while writing a story on autism for Education Week. In the late 1990s, very little was known about treating the disorder, much less the causes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was studying Brick because of a perceived “autism cluster,” given its seemingly high rate of children diagnosed.

The quiet oceanside village was bombarded by press, and parents and residents were frantic to know why so many of their children were afflicted. Most believed environmental contaminants played a role, although medical mishaps and genetics were also frequently mentioned. School officials, though, pointed to an entirely different supposition—since Brick was one of the first places to provide educational services specifically for children with autism, desperate parents were moving to send their children to Brick schools.

When I decided to write about autism for ASBJ—this time looking at the costs, treatments, and how little is still known about the causes—the first place I researched was Brick. Surely by now there would be an answer to this medical mystery, the CDC must have found some fascinating evidence to explain the autism cluster, right?

Instead, I found that Brick’s rate of identification is now the norm in New Jersey, probably because medical experts’ heightened awareness of the disorder means many more children have been identified. And the CDC report raised more questions than it answered, essentially laying out in painstaking detail the lack of good national data and information.

But what Brick and several other districts have figured out is that, regardless of causes, they must educate and embrace these children. My story in this months’ ASBJ shows how they’re doing it.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Congratulations to Senior Editor Del Stover for winning first place in the Education Writers Association's 2007 National Awards for Education Reporting for his series of stories on schools dealing with racial issues.

Del’s stories – “Moment of Truth” (April), “Summer of Fate” (August), and “The Vicious Circle” (December) – were recognized in the Special Interest, Institutional and Trade Publications category. Only four awards were given in the category this year.

ASBJ is one of 15 finalists for the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting, which will be awarded April 26 during the EWA’s 61st National Seminar in Chicago.

The EWA contest, which honors the best education reporting in print and broadcast media, is the only independent contest of its kind in the United States. This is the first time in the contest’s history that ASBJ has taken first place two years in a row; last year’s first place winner was the magazine’s series on Gulf Coast schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

One in 10 students may be suffering from a condition known as “impaired working memory”—and that’s having a negative impact on their academic performance.

So report researchers in a news release from Durham University in the United Kingdom. They also say this impairment is rarely identified by teachers, who are more likely to view affected children “as inattentive or as having lower levels of intelligence.”

So what is working memory? According to MedicineNet.com, working memory—or short-term memory—is “a system for temporarily storing information and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks.”

Translation: If you are told two numbers, you remember them, and you multiply those numbers in your head, you’re using your working memory.

It’s pretty obvious that a student’s classroom success depends somewhat on his or her ability to follow a teacher’s instructions, do some quick mental calculations, or remember what’s been said in a classroom lecture long enough to write it down.

“Working memory is a bit like a mental jotting pad, and how good this is in someone will either ease their path to learning or seriously prevent them from learning,” Dr. Tracy Alloway, head of the research team, is quoted as saying.

So how practical is this information for you? Well, some of your teachers will be familiar with the basic concept of working memory and instruction, and some special education teachers will have learned something about this condition.

But it can’t hurt to point out that the condition may be more common than they think—and isn’t the same thing as attention deficit disorder (ADD), although the challenges for students can appear similar. Also, it turns out that there are checklists available that your teachers can use to identify children who may have this problem, and there are diagnostic tools available to confirm such suspicions.

And, finally, there are instructional techniques to help students cope with this impairment.

All anyone needs to do is a little more research.

It might prove worthwhile. As Alloway notes, “early identification of these children will be a major step toward addressing underachievement. It will mean teachers can adapt their methods to help the children’s learning before they fall too far behind their peers.”

Del Stover, Senior Editor

What are you preparing your students for?

Getting a well-rounded education? Passing their classes? Graduating? Going to college?

Unfortunately, a strong secondary education can only get them to the third tier. A lack of sufficient funds means college isn’t an option for a growing number of high school graduates.

According to a press release from Public Agenda, a nonprofit that conducts public opinion surveys, college costs as a share of household income have doubled for all but the most affluent Americans in the past 20 years.

The average student debt has more than doubled to $20,000 since 1997.

Attitudes about college costs have soured as well, meaning more and more struggling families don’t consider college a feasible option for their kids.

The percentage of Americans who feel costs are preventing students from attending college has risen from 47 percent in 2000 to 62 percent in 2007, says Public Agenda. Yet most people consider higher education the key to upward mobility.

Last week, students and education leaders gathered at a C-SPAN forum hosted by Public Agenda and The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education to discuss how college tuition costs are keeping young adults from reaching their potential. The group called for collaboration between the government, higher education, and families to address rising costs.

Until then, secondary schools can do their part by encouraging students to apply for scholarships or student aid as well as supplementing college prep with vocational education. Low-income students should be able to envision a bright future without a college degree.

Stacey Hollenbeck, ASBJ Spring Intern