Virtual Learning

US Way Behind in STEM Graduates

2012-02-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

From the comprehensive OECD Report -

"There are about 1,472 math and science grads for every 100,000 employed 25- to 34-year-olds in the United States, according to the data. The compares to more than 3,555 in Korea, which leads the chart, according to the OECD figures based on 2009 data.

The United States falls between Spain and Iceland on the chart, and is noticeably lower than the OECD average. The figures do not reflect how many people with STEM degrees are actually employed in their field or using the skills they learned."

Wow - would we really tolerate being behind these countries in any other endeavor such as sports?

Reasons for this problem:

Poor perception of math and science fields
Poor preparation of teachers and not enough inspiring teachers in math and science
Lack of student success in math and science
Not prepared for college in math and science

Solutions

First Robotics competitions - pretty darn amazing
UTeach - recruiting math and science experts and teaching them to deliver exciting and engaging math/science content
LTF Training - getting so many students prepared for math and science careers through inquiry based lessons and teacher training
AP and APTIP - passing AP in STEM results in better college success and APTIP gets more students ready to succeed in AP

We have a huge problem in STEM and we now have programs that can address the problem. So let's get it done.

Why AP?

2012-02-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some great reasons from a presentation last week at the College Board conference in Arkansas:
Successful AP students develop the content knowledge, skills, and habits of mind :

higher first-and fourth-year college GPAs (Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd, 2008)
higher performance in intermediate-level college courses (Morgan & Klaric, 2007)
higher likelihood of majoring in the particular subject in which they participated in AP, especially STEM subjects Mattern, Shaw, & Ewing, 2011)
higher four-year bachelor’s degree attainment rates Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd, 2008)

Why aren’t more students taking AP?

33% of students are at a school that does not offer the AP class they need
45% don’t take the class even though they have the potential to take it

And why does Laying the Foundation care? 70% of students lack the pre AP rigor to have the potential for AP success

17% of students complete high school with at least one successful AP experience
13% have the potential to succeed in AP but don’t
70% need increased preparation to get there

There you have it - we need to focus more on the 70% and provide the skills and the confidence to those students so that they are ready for AP!!

Dual Enrollment vs AP

2012-02-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

"DE students are more likely than AP students to go to college, but are less likely to enroll in a four-year college." Determinants of Students’ Success The Role of Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment Programs by Cecilia Speroni.

Pretty much all you need to know. If you are just trying to hit a metric that says more kids will go to college then you can focus on dual enrollment. But if you want to ensure students are having a quality pre-college experience that leads to a four year degree, you better get them into AP.

For more - http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2012/fb021012.htm

"LTF is especially key to reach students in the eary years"!

2012-02-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Great update from NMSI CEO Mary Ann Rankin that really focuses on the great work that LTF is doing with students

Mary Ann Rankins on how the National Math+Science Initiative prepares math teachers

Some great quotes -

"We provide teachers with lessons and exercises that allow students to discover math principles themselves through problems and activities that are practical and engaging. When students can work in teams and discover principles for themselves rather than just listening to a lecture, they are much more involved in their own learning and they retain information in a different and more permanent way. Hands on applications of math remove some of the fear of the subject.

In fact students may be learning math without even realizing it. This is a very different type of teaching -- the teacher is a guide and a resource rather than a "sage on the stage." But in order to be effective, this type of lesson must be well-structured so the students achieve key learning goals.

LTF trains teachers in this kind of instruction ("inquiry-based learning" or project-based instruction) and provides lessons/exercises that teachers can use to augment the traditional curriculum"

We have the best jobs in the world!

STEM Solution Not Rocket Science

2012-02-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

Tom Luce, the board chair of NMSI, says that the fight in STEM has shifted. A few years back you couldn't get anyone to admit there was a problem, today you can't get them to admit there are solutions that work. The chart above shows the number of successful African Americans and Hispanics on mathematics, science and English AP exams since AP Strategies and Laying the Foundation have been working. That is a 1080% increase with a 1666% increase for Hispanic students.

We have found the STEM solution - we just need to implement it in more places!

(graph from AP Strategies)

2012-02-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

Got a note from ECS on what is happening with blended and online learning in the US. That is a lot of districts!

- "Fifty-five percent of public school districts reported having students enrolled in distance education courses in 2009-10. Among those districts, 96% reported having students enrolled in distance education courses at the high school level, 19% at the middle or junior high school level, 6% at the elementary school level, and 4% in combined or ungraded schools."

Alternative Certification with AMAZING results!

2012-02-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

There is a new study out on alternative teacher certification in Florida that demonstrates the amazing work we did at the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) back in the day. When I arrived, we had Florida as a state but had not done any recruiting to get teachers. So we set out to get some math and science experts in the classroom through our alt cert program. Looks like we succeeded according the Tim Sass study released last month. I am proud of many things in my life, but putting ABCTE on track to get results like this is certainly in the top 5.

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS AND TEACHER QUALITY: A COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO TEACHING *

Tim R. Sass, Department of Economics Georgia State University December 12, 2011

From the Study
Teachers who obtain certification through the three distinctly alternative routes (district alternative

certification, Educator Preparation Institutes and ABCTE) have stronger credentials than graduates of

Florida teacher preparation programs. A greater proportion graduated from the most competitive

colleges and fewer graduated from the least competitive colleges.

…combined SAT scores are significantly higher for alternatively certified teachers, about 100 points greater for district alternative certification and EPI teachers and over 150 points greater for ABCTE teachers.

On Performance:

The performance of ABCTE teachers in teaching math is substantially better, on average, than for preparation program graduates. Across all specifications and tests, ABCTE teachers boost math achievement by six to eleven percent of a standard deviation more than do traditionally prepared teachers.

For both district alternative-certification and EPI teachers, their estimated value-added to student achievement is not statistically different from that of traditionally prepared teachers in all test/specification combinations. However, differences in value-added estimates for ABCTE teachers remain large and statistically significant in math when using the FCAT-SSS exam.

Common Core Implmentation Webinar

2012-01-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

Very proud of the LTF training team and the program they put together to help more teachers impelment Common Core State Standards! For more - you can see the press release that is flying around

National Teacher Training Program Presents Webinar Series on Common Core Implementation

The Best Physics Simulations

2012-01-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

"What causes a balloon to stick to a sweater? How do microwaves heat coffee? How is electricity generated from a bar magnet?

The physical world poses a number of questions. The PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder helps students discover the answers and go beyond, while improving their scientific literacy.

The PhET project, founded by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and others, provides free, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for elementary through university students. NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) provides primary support through its Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program (and its predecessor the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program) and the Discovery Research K-12 program."

That is from the National Science Foundation article on PhET Simulations provide Interactive Learning Tools.

The LTF Science Team is working with the PhET team to develop inquiry based lessons that go along with their simulations. These simulations are pretty amazing and can really help students understand physics - and very soon, mathematics.

More to come when these lessons are ready!!

Math & Science Teacher Shortage Solution

2012-01-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

There is a solution for recruiting and training the absolute best math and science teachers for America's schools - the UTeach program is now in 25 different universities with over 5,000 math and science experts going into teaching. These are well trained math and science experts who are committed to staying in the classroom! (not just two years).

The solution is there - let's get our best in the classroom and expand UTeach in more universities!

Why UTeach? 2011 UTeach Institute - NMSI Conference from The UTeach Institute on Vimeo.

Common Core? Not without great implementation

2012-01-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

It takes teachers to know what teachers need and the LTF academic team understands that Common Core State Standards will not make a difference without great implementation. To help our LTF teachers, and those thinking of becoming LTF teachers, we have created a series of webinars listed on the Common Core State Standards implementation section of the LTF website.

More to come on this webinar series - but it already looks AMAZING!!

Authoring in iBooks - Textbooks made easy

2012-01-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

Great post on our LTF Training blog by our newest author Jared Brueckner "Publishing in iBooks Author: The LTF Story"

It is very cool - really is game changing for all things education!! More to come from Laying Foundation on how to get more professional in Professional Development.

Common Core iBook!!!

2012-01-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Yep - the new iBook app is pretty amazing and allows anyone to quickly create books. We took our common core stuff and created the first, free, Common Core iBook SO COOL!!

This is a total game changer for all books and publishing.

The direct link is here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/common-core-standards-understanding/id496949986?mt=11

Real Impact on College Success!

2012-01-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

College success starts in middle and high school and now there is proof. Dr. Kirabo Jackson here in Dallas just published a paper where he wrote:

"I find that affected students of all ethnicities attend college in greater numbers, have improved college GPAs, and are more likely to remain in college beyond their freshman year. Moreover, the program improves college outcomes even for those students who would have enrolled in college without the program."

Problem solved - if you want to positively impact the chance for college success you use the one two punch of LTF training and the AP Training and Incentive Program!

For more information and a link to the study - go to the NMSI Blog

Next Gen Science Standars plus AP Bio Changes = HUGE SHIFT

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

A science teaching revolution must occur if students are to succeed on the new AP Biology exam and/or the Next Generation Science Standards. Teachers must shift from pronouncing content at the front of the classroom to focus on inquiry based learning.

Read more about this dramatic shift at the LTF Training Blog!

Why Science Majors Bail

2012-01-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just SoDarn Hard)

· Science is fun in MS and HS because more interactive, but STEM subjects in college is “math-science death march”

· Roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree.

o Increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to data from UCLA

o That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.

· Why Students Switch Majors

o Some students still lack math preparation or “aren’t willing to work hard enough”

o Proliferation of grade inflation in the humanities and social sciences, which provides another incentive for students to leave STEM majors.

o Bright students may have breezed through high school without developing disciplined habits. By contrast, students in China and India focus relentlessly on math and science from an early age.

§ “We’re in a worldwide competition, and we’ve got to retain as many of our students as we can,” Dean Kilpatrick says. “But we’re not doing kids a favor if we’re not teaching them good life and study skills.”

· Research confirmed in the 1990s that students learn more by grappling with open-ended problems, like creating a computer game or designing an alternative energy system, than listening to lectures.

o But, lecture classes are far cheaper to produce, and top professors are focused on bringing in research grants, not teaching undergraduates.

· Association of American Universities, which represents 61 of the largest research institutions, announced five-year initiative to encourage faculty members in STEM fields to use more interactive teaching techniques.

MATTHEW MONIZ bailed out of engineering at Notre Dame in the fall of his sophomore year. He had been the kind of recruit most engineering departments dream about. He had scored an 800 in math on the SAT and in the 700s in both reading and writing. He also had taken Calculus BC and five other Advanced Placement courses at a prep school in Washington, D.C., and had long planned to major in engineering.

But as Mr. Moniz sat in his mechanics class in 2009, he realized he had already had enough. “I was trying to memorize equations, and engineering’s all about the application, which they really didn’t teach too well,” he says. “It was just like, ‘Do these practice problems, then you’re on your own.’ ” And as he looked ahead at the curriculum, he did not see much relief on the horizon.

New Generation Science Standards

2012-01-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

College Board hosted an amazing group of people to discuss the dramatic shift in science education that will occur due to changes in the AP science exams and the New Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I had the pleasure of sitting next to Governor Roy Romer - former governor of Colorado and former superintendent of education for Los Angeles Unified School District. His quote below pretty much summarizes the challenge before us:

"Irrational politics in DC will get worse. But the understanding that we need increased productivity through technology and science will drive change. The average American family cannot get out of the state they are in with the jobs in front of them. Economy improvement comes from productivity gains and we cannot achieve improved productivity without improved science education."

The new AP science exams and NGSS both drive science education from massive rote memorization into deeper understanding of how to use science knowledge. Teachers must adapt their practice from pronouncing content at the front of the classroom to a real focus on inquiry based learning. The labs in the new AP Biology nicknamed the Great 8 are absolutely mandatory if students are going to pass AP Bio - you can no longer get away with memorizing the outcomes.

This is a dramatic shift in teaching and learning for science. It will push students to a deeper understanding of the big concepts critical to master the discipline and a greater ability to use that knowledge. LTF Training is all about inquiry based instruction to create a deeper understanding of math, science and English. This shift in focus will create a huge opportunity for LTF.

When we succeed, it will have a profound impact on our economy.

Apple - game changer again

2012-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Great summary over at LTF training on the game changing announcment from Apple. Textbook companies should consult with the music industry on how this will turn out for them.

http://www.ltftraining.org/TeachingCommunity/Blog/tabid/548/PostID/145/Apple’s-Education-Announcement-LTF-Thoughts--Notes.aspx

Investing in STEM

2012-01-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

St. Pete Times has an article about the cost of STEM - it should be more about the brilliant investment in STEM to ensure our leadership in the global economy.

The interesting thing to me is a new bill that would give schools more points in the Florida state school rating system for schools that perform better in math and science:

From the article about a bill by Senator Don Gaetz:
"Gaetz has proposed giving high schools bonus points in the state grading system, based on the percentage of students who earn credits in math and science courses that are more advanced than those mandated for a diploma."

WOOHOO - we are going to have to reach out to Senator Gaetz and let him know we are ready to help. Giving points is a great way to get schools to focus but then teachers need the training and resources to bring STEM to life, to prepare students in grades 6-10 so they are actually ready for those classes - and LTF training is already planning to help in Florida next year.

Looking forward to helping!

Why Can't Employers Find Workers

2012-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

More than half of all US employers had trouble filling job openings because they couldn't find skilled workers - a 38% jump and difficult to understand when 13 million are still unemployed and looking for work.

So we have a huge disconnect in employment according to an article about the Manpower survey entitled Role reversal: Employers say they can't find workers.

Some of this is a legitimate issue since we are not preparing workers for the workforce of today but Manpower claims that some it is that employers have been spoiled and got lazy and don't seem to remember they have to recruit the right people. Employers don't want to move people because of the high cost and are not offering the salary and benefits to get people excited.

We should see an interesting shift in the upcoming months on hiring but the bottom line is that we need a better STEM focus to ensure that more high school graduates have the option to move into the workforce or college and have the skills to succeed.

Why No STEM Majors?

2012-01-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

1. Students are not math proficient
2. Just not interested in STEM

This according to a Business Higher Education Forum brief entitled: "Meeting the STEM Workforce Demand: Accelerating Math Learning Among Students Interested in STEM" (note the title is almost as long as the 2 page brief).

More fun facts:

Less than half of 12th graders meet college readiness math benchmark
Only 17% of 12th graders who are proficient have an interest in STEM careers (which aligns with the 16% who graduate in STEM)
14% of 12th graders are interested in STEM but are not math proficient! (low hanging fruit)
69% are not interested in STEM
They didn't split out the math proficient not STEM interested but if 43% are math proficient, and 14% are interested in STEM it would make that number 29%

Not earth shattering - we know we need to get students more excited about STEM careers AND make sure they are ready to tackle those careers which is why LTF Training was created!

Flipping the Classroom!

2012-01-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

Flipping the Classroom , a blog hosted by Laying the Foundation (LTF), a teacher professional development program, went live this week on the LTF website. This new blog recaps the experiences of two high school teachers and LTF Trainers, Melissa Parma and Robert Gonzales, as they implement the flipped classroom model of teaching.

This rising educational trend reverses the traditional pattern of classroom instruction followed by homework activities. With the flipped classroom model, students gain insight into material—and control the pace of their learning—through viewing introductory information at home. Students then come to the classroom prepared to tackle an activity related to what they learned the night before. In the classroom, students have more time for hands-on activities, and they are able to get immediate assistance from the instructor and their peers when they face challenges in solving complex problems.

Middle school and high school teachers across the United States can benefit from the strategies that Parma and Gonzales use in their classrooms and present in the Flipping the Classroom Blog. For example, in her first post, Parma gives the details about the specific technology and equipment that she uses in her flipped classroom approach. Gonzales, in his first post, shares how he was introduced to the model, and outlines what blog readers can expect from his future posts.

Parma has taught in public high schools in Texas and California for 28 years. A native Texan, she graduated from Rice University and did her graduate work in education at Cal State, Los Angeles. With rare exceptions, her teaching assignments have always been either mathematics or physics or both. She is an LTF Math Trainer and manages the online LTF Math Forum, and she currently teaches at an Early College High School in New Braunfels, Texas.

Gonzales is a graduate of the UTeach Program at UT Austin. He has worked in Austin ISD for nine years, taking two years out of the chemistry classroom to be a department chair and instructional coach. He currently teaches chemistry in the Academy for Global Studies, a small learning community within Austin High School affiliated with the Asia Society as part of the International Studies School Network. Gonzales is an LTF Chemistry Trainer.

To learn more about LTF, its training program, and its blended learning initiatives and resources, visit

www.ltftraining.org

About Laying the Foundation

Laying the Foundation, a division of the National Math and ScienceInitiative, is dedicated to providing the best content-based, pedagogy-driven, teacher-to-teacher training, supported by rigorous classroom-ready lessons and web-based resources to improve the quality of math, science, and English instruction. LTF has trained over 36,000 teachers to date and has demonstrated dramatic increases in Advanced Placement exam participation and success in STEM subjects. LTF believes that training, mentoring, and empowering the teacher corps will lead to high standards of academic excellence for all students.

Useful degree, job then hobby - in that order!

2012-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Props to Joanne Jacobs for highlighting htis great post from Barry Rubin - The Graduate: Why Should Everyone Else Pay for Other People's Dumb (and Hedonistic) Career Choices. I have been saying this for a while but occasionally get flack from people that claim that anyone can get a job as long as they have a college degree.

But there are way too many college graduates and the jobs have become too specialized. If I need a marketer, I am hiring someone with a marketing degree - not an Art History major. The Art History major will have to go open an art history store somewhere I guess.

From the article - a 28 year old can't make a living and gets frustrated because.......
"Here’s the secret: He cannot make a living because the market for people with degrees in linguistics and in Oriental philosophy is limited. He should have known that. Someone should have told him that. The calculation of practicality should have been made. It wasn’t."

Rubin proposes three things:

Young people should be taught that the world doesn't owe them a living
It is a mistake for everyone to go to college and believe that they will get money when the graduate regardless of what they study
Studying social sciences and humanities, not to mention all of the phony degrees that have been created to meet "student needs" does not make one employable "NOR does a degree have written on it "hire this person at a high salary"

Thus the advice from Mr. Rubin - "Get a useful education, a job and a hobby in that order. And don't expect the hardworking people who have had to make compromises in their own lives, to pay you to do whatever you want."

Laying the Foundation

2012-01-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

Our friends at AAE - the Association of American Educators has a nice article in their recent newsletter entitled: "Laying the Foundation" (found on page 4). The article provides a great resource to teachers who are wondering how to improve college readiness in their students and get ready for common core state standards (CCSS). AAE has always been about working together to improve education and has done amazing things in the last few years to help teachers.

Teaching is a difficult profession but is absolutely the key to improving education. As our founder is fond of saying:

The Teacher is Key
Students need more time on task
And incentives work

STEM Update from NGA

2012-01-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

Nice update on the state of STEM in the states from NGA entitled: "Building a Science Technology Engineering and Math Agenda"

STEM Facts:

➔ A t all levels of educational attainment, STEM job holders earn 11 percent higher wages compared with their same-degree counterparts in other jobs.

➔ The top 10 bachelor-degree majors with the highest median earnings are all in STEM fields.

➔ The average annual wage for all STEM occupations was $77,880 in May 2009, significantly above the U.S. average of $43,460 for non-STEM occupations.

➔ Over the past 10 years, STEM jobs grew three times faster than non-STEM jobs. STEM jobs are expected to grow by 17 percent during the 2008–2018 period versus 9.8 percent growth for non-STEM jobs.

➔ I n 2010, the unemployment rate for STEM workers was 5.3 percent; for all other occupations, it was 10 percent.

It is worth a read since they first identify the problem all of which NMSI is working on:

Inconsistent state standards in math and science (guess they like Common Core)
Shortfall of qualified math and science classroom teachers (UTeach does this well)
Lack of preparation for postsecondary STEM education (APTIP and LTF)
Failure to motivate student interest in math and sciences (LTF training)
Failure of postsecondary system to meet STEM job needs

Their STEM agenda to meet the challenges:

Adopt rigorous standards
Recruit STEM teachers
Provide more rigorous STEM preparation for students
Use more informal learning to expand math and science beyond the classroom
Enhance the quality and supply of STEM teachers
Establish goals for postsecondary institutions to meet STEM job needs

Looks like a job for the National Math and Science Initiative since that is what we do!!

Return the American Dream!

2012-01-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Dr. Mary Ann Rankin has an excellent column on the Huffington Post on How We Can Get the American Dream Back for our Kids. I am biased because her solution does focus on Laying the Foundation and our merger with the National Math and Science Initiative.

You see, back in my father's time engineering was the way into the middle class. Somehow we have lost that as a country and it is because our education system is failing to prepare students to get there.

From her post:
"college depends on preparation that begins in middle school or earlier, especially in the critical areas of math and science. Students who fail to learn the basics in these fields have little hope of catching up in time to succeed in college. The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) merged this month with the teacher-training organization Laying the Foundation (LTF) precisely so that we can do more to prepare students for success from the sixth grade onward"

We know what needs to be done - in 2012 our goal is to find more school districts who are ready to take on the challenge of better preparing their students so that more of them will find their way into the middle class through STEM careers.

NMSI and LTF - the video!

2011-12-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

Great video of the NEW National Math and Science Initiative that includes the amazing Laying the Foundation training program. Historical in non-profit mergers and simply amazing in our student results.

Book Reviews

2011-12-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

Interesting site got posted to our English Forums at LTF Training called ProseNotes. It is a book review aggregator which is pretty cool. He figured that you can't tell a book by one review so why not pull all the reviews for a given title.

I don't normally plug websites but I know I will use this one. Way to go Jason.

Non-Profits Merge - Students Win!

2011-12-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

GREAT NEWS for students who want to be college ready and pursue STEM majors! The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and Laying the Foundation (LTF) are merging to form a more comprehensive program designed to radically improve opportunities for all students. Bringing together the talent and the resources of these two non-profit organizations through a merger will dramatically increase results.

Non-profit mergers are sometimes difficult. But when everyone is focused on results for students it makes things much easier. LTF gets broader reach, a board of directors who are experts in the STEM field and a recognized brand in NMSI. NMSI gets great operational talent, phenomenal back-office strength and a program that generates revenue. Together we will build a fundraising team to ensure the long term sustainability of both organizations.

This will be an amazing non-profit merger that will benefit millions of students!!

Read more about the NMSI - LTF Merger!

Teacher Training that WORKS!

2011-12-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Ruston Louisiana - LTF training is doing some great things due to some amazing teachers. The District Wide Transformation case study says it all. Please - take a look and spread the word!! So thrilled with our team.

Lincoln Parish English Teachers Lead District-Wide Transformation from LTF Training on Vimeo.

Communism rates higher than Congress!

2011-12-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

My favorite stat:
More people approve of communism (11%), polygamy (11%), pornography (30%), the BP oil spill (16%) and banks (23%) than approve of Congress (9%).

From HuffingtonPost - "Congress Approval Rating Lower Than Porn, Polygamy, BP Oil Spill, 'U.S. Going Communist'

No surprise here at all. They have just been pathetic and I hope that we all vote for massive change in Congress this year!

TTBO - Throw The Bums OUT

College Majors with the most unemployment

2011-12-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

If you are taking out college loans and need to know how to pay for them, it might be wise to check out this website from the Wall Street Journal. It lists each major, the unemployment rate and the median earnings. I sorted by unemployment rate and it is pretty telling - ie, don't go into psych majors unless you are independently wealthy. Actuarial science, pharmacology, geological/geophysical engineering, teaching and astronomy are all still great majors if you need a job and money.
http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/#term

I know it shouldn't be about the money - it is about passion and doing what you love - but don't go $120K in debt if you can't possibly pay it off. You just have to be smart in picking your field.

Rocky Mountain High!

2011-12-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

We have some great friends in Colorado including Ed is Watching which has a great post on the expansion of the National Math and Science Initiative ( NMSI ) and Laying the Foundation ( LTF ) into 30 high schools in CO this summer. This is due to a $15 M I3 Grant from the US DOE.

Check out Ed is Watching's post Effective Math and Science Program Making Big Leap in Colorado High Schools

Very cool!

AP versus Dual Enrollment

2011-12-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

New study looking to compare Advanced Placement (AP) with Dual Enrollment (DE) with one slight flaw: the study didn't look at those who passed each - it only looked at students who took each. If the study had looked at students who passed AP versus those who passed DE, the results would show AP in a better light.

The conclusion seems to be that there is not a "right way" to improve college success. If students are 4 year college bound, AP is better. If they are looking at associates degrees, DE is the way to go. And all students need to be better prepared for both.

Determinants of Students’ Success

The Role of Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment Programs
"The study finds that both AP and DE are strongly associated with positive outcomes, but the enrollment outcomes are not the same for both programs. DE students are more likely than AP students to go to college after high school, but they are less likely to first enroll in a four-year college."

"In addition, the effect of DE is driven by courses taken at the local community college campus; there is no effect for DE courses taken at the high school."

Taken together, these results suggest a relative underrepresentation of DE students at four-year colleges. This has important implications for college admission practices that are unduly influenced by AP participation and for policies addressing factors other than academic readiness that affect DE students’ ability-college undermatch.

While DE participation is associated with positive outcomes, this effect is seen only for students who took DE courses at the community college; DE participation had no effect for students who took courses at the high school. In light of current concerns about high schools’ ability to deliver college-level instruction and the lack of a standardized curriculum in DE courses, the results might call for increased quality control for DE college credits earned at high school campuses.

IT'S THE CULTURE, STUPID

2011-12-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

WOW - great, must read article in The Atlantic by Jordan Weissmann, "Everything You Know About Education is Wrong" that talks about a groundbreaking new study by Roland Fryer (a MacArthur Foundation "genius award winner"). The study is called: "Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City" by Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer, Jr

"Fryer found that class size, per-pupil spending, and the number of teachers with certifications or advanced degrees had nothing to do with student test scores in language and math.
In fact, schools that poured in more resources actually got worse results"

SHOCKER - though not really because many people have been saying this, it is just good to get the actual data. So what can really make a difference?

"Schools that focused on teacher development, data-driven instruction, creating a culture focused on student achievement, and setting high academic expectations consistently fared better."

"Fryer measured school culture in a way no academic before him had. He looked at the number of times teachers got feedback. The number of days students got tutored in small groups. The number of assessments for students. The number of hours students actually spent at their desks. Each correlated with higher student scores.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, schools that claimed a "relentless focus on academic goals" also tended to produce better test scores. Schools that focused on self esteem and emotional health? Not as much. (Sorry Gen Y.)"

As Jeb Bush said, we have to stop thinking that building self-esteem will lead to student success and start realizing that student success builds self-esteem. So very true.

"But Fryer's findings show that money alone isn't enough. Neither are sterling teaching credentials. It's what you do with them that makes a difference for students."

And note that LTF training is about creating a culture focused on much higher student achievement. Culture doesn't change in one day which is why we train over three years. More to come

Education crisis solved just in time for the holidays. Now let's get it done.

Colorado - I3, NMSI & LTF

2011-12-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

Having been in the military I am used to acronyms and abbreviations. Heck, the Navy had the DICNAVAB but education certainly is a very close second in abbreviations.

But the news is great for Colorado and Indiana students!! The US Department of Education has awarded an Investing in Innovation (thus the I3) grant to the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). That grant includes funding for Laying the Foundation (LTF) to provide teacher training and classroom ready resources. The goal is to ensure that more students are ready to take and pass AP classes in both Colorado and Indiana through an increased focus on teacher training and more time on task for students. And if they do pass, both the students and the teachers recieve a bonus.

Very exciting times!
Read the article in Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9R9QLH01.htm
Read the press release from NMSI: http://www.nationalmathandscience.org/newsroom/article/7-million-grant-aid-stem-education

STEM Connector

2011-12-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

The STEM Connector is live!

"STEMConnector™ is a nationwide collaboration of companies, nonprofit associations and professional societies, STEM-related research & policy organizations, and academic institutions concerned about the plight of STEM education in the United States. STEMConnector™ is designed to link "all things STEM" by constructing a comprehensive Web Site that provides connections to national, state and local STEM entities and their own content through a variety of search tools.

And of course Laying the Foundation is listed!!

Inventer solving STEM

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to go to a conference where Dean Kaman, master inventor of the Segway and others was speaking on his solution to the STEM problem in this country. Innovators looks at problems from a totally different perspective. The STEM issue is not about supply and demand, it is about demand and supply. Dean assumes that we do not have a total the education crisis in this country so our good schools should produce enough STEM professionals. His hypothesis is that our STEM crisis is a value crisis.

Students are not focused on STEM as a career. Kids don't think STEM is accessible or attractive and STEM careers/professionals are not seen in a positive light. "In a free society you get what you celebrate and we celebrate sport and entertainment to obsession." We lead the world in sports and entertainment so they have gone from a national pastime to a national obsession. But obsessing over sports and entertainment will never create national prosperity - leading in technology will.

The STEM problem is about demand and not supply. If the demand is there then everything else falls into place including better resources leading to better teaching leading to more STEM professionals.

We must change the culture of the United States and we already have the roadmap to do this from sports and entertainment. So Dean created FIRST.

"To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders."
Dean Kamen, Founder
FIRST's Mission
Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
He made a science competition to compete with the Super Bowl!
He created inspiration and recognition for science and technology because teachers don't create demand. The culture and great companies will. The demand will drive the supply.
When the problem is defined and the free market is allowed to respond, great companies rise to the occasion

The results are staggering and it is great to see someone really look at an innovative solution to STEM. One that REALLY works!

From STEM to STEAM

2011-12-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

Adding Arts to STEM is gaining a little momentum according to an article in EdWeek - STEAM: Experts Make Case for Adding Arts to STEM . The theory is that you need to the arts for context, for design etc. and they are correct. Coincidentally you also need English to succeed in college and in STEM subjects because if you can't read and write, you can't become a math, science or engineering expert.

So you basically need a solid, well rounded education to succeed in STEM. Who'd a thunk it.

STEM CONFERENCE! Put it on your calendar

2011-12-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

U.S. News and Co-Presenters Innovate+Educate and STEMconnector select Dallas to host Major June 2012 Conference Addressing America's Severe Shortfall in STEM Skills

Co-sponsors of STEM Summit 2012: "STEM Means Jobs" include Intel, AT&T, Monster, Lockheed Martin, CSC, and Ingersoll-Rand joining with the Business Roundtable, College Board, The Manufacturing Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Math and Science Initiative / Laying the Foundation, and 33 co-chairs from industry, associations, and education.

WASHINGTON, DC—October 18, 2011—U.S. News & World Report together with Innovate + Educate, STEMconnector™, and over 40 key organizations representing industry and education, will hold a major national event to focus policymakers and the public on the critical shortage of STEM skills in the American workforce. The three-day session called STEM Summit 2012 convenes at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel on June 27, 28, and 29 and will explore solutions and successes in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as the pathways to jobs.

Following its successful STEM Summit 2011 at the National Press Club, the 2012 "STEM Means Jobs" event will draw thousands of participants, bringing together industry, government and associations with educators, top policymakers, and media. U.S. businesses are alarmed by the declining supply of STEM-trained workers. Many STEM-related jobs are going unfilled despite high unemployment.

"STEM education and science-related jobs are one of the nation's most critical issues" according to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman and editor-in-chief of U.S. News. "There is much good work being done in different parts of the country, but it is essential to bring the best people and the best practices together. We want to highlight the most successful programs and help shape greater awareness of how important STEM education is for so many segments of society, including for women and economically disadvantaged communities. If we don't get better at this, we're going to miss the future."

Reflecting the urgency of the issue, major organizations were eager to lend support. The first National Co-Chairs include: Aerospace Industries Association (AIA); Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America (ASTRA); American Institute of Architects (AIA); American Geophysical Union (AGU); American Society for Engineering Education; Business and Industry STEM Education Coalition (BISEC); The Business Roundtable; Center for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL); Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD); Change the Equation; Coalition for Science Afterschool (CSAS); College Board; The Conrad Foundation; Converge US; Entertainment Industries Council; Corporate Voices for Working Families; Governing.com; Great Minds in STEM; Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU); Hispanic College Fund; Institute for a Competitive Workforce (U.S. Chamber of Commerce); Jobs for the Future; The Manufacturing Institute (of the National Association of Manufacturers); National Association for Equal Employment in Higher Education (NAFEO); National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT); National Conference of State Legislatures; National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA); National Girls Collaborative; NMSI; National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA); Project Lead the Way; TechNET; and Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES).

Over the past ten years, growth in jobs needing STEM skills was three times that of other sectors. The Commerce Department projects those jobs will continue to outpace other sectors over the next ten years. Those jobs include many specialized fields such as computer engineering that are among the highest paying in the country, but also include attractive entry-level positions such as computer technicians.

"Technology and innovation are key drivers to economic growth and jobs," said John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable. "U.S. workforce training has to catch up to a global economy where more and more jobs require STEM training. CEO's and education leaders have an important role to play in linking STEM education to job creation."

"We believe this Summit is critical to bringing industry, policy, and education thought leaders together to create a collective impact to advance the future STEM workforce that will move our economy forward," said Jami Grindatto, Intel Corporation and chairman of Innovate+Educate. "We are pleased to partner with STEMconnector™ and U.S. News for this important conversation that will develop into action for our nation."

Intel is a founding sponsor along with Lockheed Martin, Monster, CSC and Ingersoll Rand. Each organization has a significant presence in promoting STEM education and careers.

"Lockheed Martin is proud to partner with Innovate+Educate and summit partners in highlighting national-level efforts that bring the excitement of science and technology to students," said Dr. Ray O. Johnson, the company's chief technology officer. "As a global security company, we understand the importance of fostering the next generation of innovators. A diverse technical workforce is vital to the success of our corporation and to our competitiveness as a nation."

The conference will organize the broad array of STEM workforce issues from how to engage middle school students to how technology can better link job openings with skill sets, connecting educators with job creators. A key challenge will be increasing public awareness of STEM among parents and students. While businesses are keenly aware of the shortfall in STEM work skills, most people are unfamiliar with the term STEM, let alone its connection to jobs.

"The entertainment industry and news media are key to creating the mass public awareness needed to inspire young people towards education and spotlight career paths that lead to innovation. We must connect these cornerstones of our economy," said Brian Dyak, president and CEO of the Entertainment Industries Council Inc.

"Connectivity – as exemplified by the STEM Summit -- is a key to smarter organization and linking the millions of stakeholders at all levels," said Dr. Mary Good, chairman of ASTRA and past president of the American Society for the Advancement of Science.

As one example of the breadth of the issues, Ray Mellado, CEO of Great Minds in STEM, focused on the need to advance Hispanic students in the field. "As we focus on the new American students and where they will find jobs, it means looking for new ways to collaborate."

"The work of earth and space scientists touches every aspect of our lives," said Christine McEntee, executive director of the American Geophysical Union. "The future depends on filling the shortage for earth and space scientists."

"Architecture is a STEM career," said Clark Manus, president of the American Institute of Architects. "In particular we are thrilled to be part of a program that will support AIA's ongoing diversity initiative which seeks to engage underrepresented youth about the design profession."

Added Rey Ramsey, president and CEO of TechNet: "It's critically important that our next generation of leaders have strong skills in the STEM fields."

Texas officials welcomed the conference, stressing the strong technology sector in the state and Dallas region as well as a progressive approach to education in U.S. News's recent ranking of Best High Schools for Math and Science; two were in Dallas and one in Houston.

"I am excited about the city of Dallas hosting this national STEM conference," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. "Schools with a math and science emphasis are especially key to the success of our workforce, our economic growth and our future."

A Dallas host committee for STEM Summit 2012 is being formed by Innovate+Educate board member Eric Reeves.

For additional information on sponsorship opportunities, exhibition space and registration, visit http://usnewsstemsummit.com/. Follow STEM Summit 2012 on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/STEMsummit.

U.S. News & World Report is a print and digital publisher of news and information in the areas of politics, policy, education, health care, personal finance and other topics of consumer interest.

Innovate+Educate is a national non-profit led by Fortune 500 companies with a goal of aligning STEM education and workforce efforts on a state-by-state basis.

STEMconnector is a resource center and network that helps bring together the many STEM projects around the country with a website of more than 3,000 organizations dedicated to STEM education; jobs and diversity are key priorities.

Higher Ed Waste

2011-11-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

At ALEC and listening to a presentation on how much public institutions waste on buildings that are not necessary. Basically, higher Ed gave up on 8:00 classes and Friday afternoon and just built more buildings instead. It is one of the reasons it is so hard to graduate in 4 years - you can't schedule classes because they are only offered between 10 and 2.

Kids will have to work at 8 am and in a tight economy we can't build more buildings to let students sleep in.

LTF SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!!

2011-11-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

If you are in New Orleans - you can attend LTF Training due to the great efforts of Advance NOLA!

Our AdvanceNOLA program supports the development of Advanced Placement programs in four public high schools in New Orleans. In the current academic year, we have expanded our college readiness initiatives by implementing pre-AP programs within these high schools.

Our partner schools have expressed interest in entering 9th graders having already been exposed to pre-AP programs. The local middle schools are doing a tremendous job talking to students about college and career readiness, and we would like to augment their initiatives with pre-AP programs on their campuses.

The Cowen Institute, through its Programming area, will offer six teacher scholarships for Laying the Foundation’s pre-AP training for up to 20 public schools with 7th and 8th grades. Ideally, we will train two teachers in each core subject: math, science, and English.

Laying the Foundation’s four-day Pre-AP Summer Institute will be held Monday, June 11th- Thursday, June 14th, 2012 at Tulane University. A link to registration can be found here

Boomers! Stop Creating New Non-Profits!!

2011-11-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

Great article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Calling All Boomers: Don't Start More Nonprofits by Mark Rosenman that lays it out perfectly. There are too many non-profits already with a seriously dwindling amount of disposable income in the upper and middle class. So the last thing we need is more non-profits competing for money and talent.

But that is what boomers want to do according to the article as 12 million are leaning that way. Really - we need 12 million more non-profits to solve the world's problems? No - we need your talent and your dollars to go to existing non-profits.

At this time of Thanksgiving, give thanks that there are so many great groups out there doing great things for those in need that you can give your money and time - don't give thanks by competing with them.

Online PD for Teachers - it is coming

2011-11-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

From adversity comes opportunity. In this case the dwindling dollars for teacher professional development is pushing more organizations to move to online PD as shown in the Edweek article - Education Schools Playing Online PD Catch-up. (hat tip to Michael Horn tweet on this)

Great to see that Ed Schools are getting in the game. Here at LTF, it is the first think I focused on for our amazing teachers - getting them online support to augment our live training. We can't charge more for the online component because school districts have no money, but it does give our teachers are great resource they can use any time they need it.

That is why I brought the LTF academic team to iNACOL - so we can push the envelope in online learning for teachers.

Join the Common Core State Standards Conversation

2011-11-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

While education leaders talk a lot about the merits or issues with Common Core State Standards teachers are left with only one discussion - how to get the standards into their lessons and make it work. Laying the Foundation is working to help teachers create their own conversations about implementing Common Core and are asking you to join the discussion.

At LTF we only care about one thing - what is right for the student - and using our training and resources to implement these new standards will ensure that more students are college ready.

How do we know? More to come on that tomorrow.

Common Core Resources

2011-11-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

The LTF team is going all out to make it much easier for districts and teachers to bring common core state standards into the classroom. There is a great blog post up on their site about their resources and the response from teachers - from the common core blog post

Another English teacher at Ruston, Mrs. Emily Howell, commented, “As soon as I saw the Common Core Standards and began to read them in detail, I thought, 'We’re already complying with these standards because we’ve been doing LTF for three years.’” Mrs. Howell is the current Louisiana High School Teacher of the Year.

Mrs. Howell went on to say, “The terminology is very similar, the skills are very similar, and the desired end results are the same. Laying the Foundation is the answer to ‘How will we implement Common Core?’”

Help your teachers help your students - get them some LTF common core training and resources.

Teachers are the key to Common Core State Standards!

2011-11-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

Great press release from my team over at Laying the Foundation on how they are helping teachers implement Common Core State Standards! From the press release:

DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Laying the Foundation (LTF) has recently stepped forward to become one of the leading providers of teacher lessons and activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards. With its ten-year record of providing results-driven, content-focused teacher training and classroom-ready resources, the nonprofit organization has taken its rigorous program to the next level to help middle school and high school teachers understand and implement the new standards in their classrooms.

"We didn't start out to create a program to meet Common Core State Standards—we created a program to build academic excellence in our teachers so that they could deliver challenging lessons to ensure that more students were college ready," said Dave Saba, CEO of Laying the Foundation. "With some incredible work by the teachers on our staff, we have aligned our goals to ensure that our LTF teachers can lead the way in Common Core State Standards implementation."

Even better - the video explaining how teachers training teachers on using classroom ready lessons to implement common core is the key!

LTF Common Core Training from LTF Training on Vimeo.

It is so great to see teachers praising this training as the best way to bring the standards into the classroom and raise the level of rigor!

Common Core State Standards Explained

2011-11-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

Great blog post up on our Website that really helps explain the Common Core State Standards and will help schools with implementation.

Take a look: http://bit.ly/s1vmPj

Amazing online resources for teachers!

2011-11-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

Here is an amazing list from the iNACOL conference for teachers of free resources that can make their classrooms more exciting and engaging. Very comprehensive and amazingly cool list! ENJOY!!

Content Resources
High School and College level
Juried, open source content resources, geared to university level courses. Could easily be used by higher level HS courses.
http://merlot.org

Open Courseware Consortium. Another open source course resource. Again geared to College/upper high school.
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses/search

Open source college text books.
http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/opentextbookcontent/open-textbooks-by-subject.html

MIT Open Courseware for High School
http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school

P2PU College level course content
http://p2pu.org

Open High School of Utah: Complete online, open source courses for 9th and 10th grade subjects.
http://www.ocw.openhighschool.org

Connexions open source content chunks for hs and college courses.
http://cnx.org/content

Middle /High School
Khan Academy a VAST collection of video lessons, practice sessions, and review activities covering math from basic addition to advanced calculus. Also includes some additional subjects.
http://khanacademy.org

Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System Portal: Karpele’s documents with e-reader, lessons, PhET simulations, and much more!
http://pdesas.org

Discovery Streaming : Discovery Channel content available online.
http://www.discoveryeducation.com//teachers

Debategraph: visual maps on nearly any debate topic. Public, constantly growing perspectives on hundreds of topics.
http://debategraph.org

Elementary Level
Teacher LED Whiteboard/ipad resources for elementary and middle school. Mostly math. Some primary letter/number material.
http://teacherled.com

ABCYa.com Educational Computer Games for kids. Amazing volume of resources for each grade level, in multiple subjects. Don’t miss the animation program!
http://abcya.com

Kinetic City from the American Association for the Advancement of Science provides games, activities, challenges geared to elementary students.
http://www.kineticcity.com

Audio and video story books, activities, karaoke, and much, much more for elementary students.
http://speakaboos.com

Demonstration Resources for all subjects and levels

SimpleBooklet a brand new, simple and quick way to create mashups of audio, video, images, text, and embedded code.
http://simplebooklet.com

Museum Box: create a multi level/multi compartment museum box containing cubes. Each cube has multiple faces, and each face contains resources…text, documents, images, audio or video files. Customizable for number of levels and boxes.
http://museumbox.e2bn.org

Glogster for education: create posters and have students collaborate creating unique resources.
http://edu.glogster.com

Voki: create speaking, custom avatars
http://www.voki.com

Blabberize: change any image into a talking video.
http://blabberize.com

Animoto: create slideshows to music, including text.
http://animoto.com

Creation

Floorplanner allows anyone to create detailed floor plans. Great when a project requires this type of demonstration.
http://floorplanner.com

Go!Animate allows quick, computer generated voices to be added to a series of characters, creating simple animations with your content.
http://goanimate.com

Domo Go Animate allows the creator to move cartoon figures, add detailed movements, expressions, and interactions in a series of scenes.
http://domogoanimate.com

Xtranormal now has an EDU site. There are significant fees involved.
http://xtranormal.com/edu

Stick figure animation
http://stykz.net

Create online games, from pixilated basics to third person adventure games. Create tours and walk-throughs.
http://www.adventuremaker.com

Jumpcraft: Another online game creator.
http://jumpcraft.com

Collaboration

Connect with another webcam user, record video and audio on a shared screen, and share that video with the world.
http://wetoku.com

WallWisher: share a single website with your group, and everyone can add brief sticky notes to your wall.
http://wallisher.com

Math
Digital Photography Resource
http://course.wilkes.edu/digitalphotography/

SketchUp
http://sketchup.google.com/

Construction of a Golden Rectangle using SketchUp
http://static4.mathcs.wilkes.edu/Gems/digitalphotography/Construct.swf

GeoGebra
http://www.geogebra.org/cms/

GeoGebra: Is your face symmetrical? Using GeoGebra
http://web.wilkes.edu/barbara.moran/Paul-Geogebra.swf

The flash videos in this presentation were created with Jing:
http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

Other Math sites
Algebrahelp.com is a collection of lessons, calculators, and worksheets created to assist students and teachers of algebra.
http://algebrahelp.com

The Federal Government produces an immeasurable amount of data each day. DataMasher helps citizens have a little fun with those data by creating mashups to visualize them in different ways and see how states compare on important issues.
http://www.datamasher.org

BrainNook is a new online game that helps kids develop Math and English skills while exploring the Earth and playing safely with others.
http://www.brainnook.com

Math games, lessons, practice, puzzles, books (Geometry, algebra, pre-calculus)
http://www.coolmath.com

Graphing Calculator
https://www.desmos.com/calculator

Illuminations is designed to provide standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics
http://illuminations.nctm.org

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project with web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis).
http://nlvm.usu.edu

Math, Geography, and English Worksheets
http://www.worksheetworks.com

Language Arts

VoiceThread
http://voicethread.com/

VoiceThread Example:
http://voicethread.com/#q+english.b153041.i816684

Storybird
http://storybird.com/
Storybird Example:
http://storybird.com/books/the-power-of-friendship-6/

Other Language Arts sites

Books Should Be Free makes the world's public domain audio books available for browsing in a visual and entertaining way.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com

The lessons are free. There is a new lesson every three days. All lessons are based on stories currently in the news - as the world's news breaks, teach it.
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com

Dictionary, word of the day, etc.
http://www.merriam-webster.com

Create tag clouds
http://tagul.com

Writing Workshop on Persuasive Writing
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/minilessons.asp?topic=Persuasive

Multilanguage dictionary
http://elovivo.com

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary
organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org /

Social Studies

Google Sites
http://sites.google.com/

Google Sites
https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddv49vkt_53c9nj85gr&pli=1

Google Historical Voyages and Events
http://homepage.mac.com/larow2/Voyages/historical.html

Google Historical Voyages and Events Example - Walking Tour Of The "Make It Right" Neighborhood
http://homepage.mac.com/larow2/Voyages/Harris/katrina.html

Other Social Studies sites

Provides webcam content, technology and services
http://www.earthcam.com

Games, videos, animals & pets, photos, countries
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids

Atlapedia Online contains full color physical maps, political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world.
http://www.atlapedia.com

Ancient Egypt reference from The British Museum
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/

AwesomeStories is a gathering place of primary-source information. Its purpose is to help educators and individuals find original sources, located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies and government-created web sites.
http://awesomestories.com

The Library of Congress American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

PBS Teachers
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

Ken Burns (PBS)
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns

The National Archives – Docs Teach
http://docsteach.org /

The Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/

Science

Digital Age Approach to MS Science
http://web.wilkes.edu/barbara.moran/iste/ISTE_2011.html

Blog with Egg Drop Experiment Video
http://www.teachertube.com/members/viewVideo.php?video_id=208130&title=Egg_Drop_Experiment2
http://rcrcscience.blogspot.com/

iMovie
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Movie Maker
http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker

Diigo
http://www.diigo.com/

Egg Drop experiment
http://www.diigo.com/list/bmoran13/laws-of-motion

The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

An online, interactive Periodic Table of Elements
http://www.chemicalelements.com/

ClassroomEarth is an online resource designed to help high school teachers include environmental content in their daily lesson plans.
http://www.classroomearth.org/

Computer animations of physical processes
http://physics-animations.com/Physics/English/index.htm

EarthSky has science interviews and other audio and video content available via both broadcast and Internet outlets.
http://earthsky.org/

Edufy provides a free platform to find, share, and edit high quality learning activities shared by other teachers with a focus on STEM education.
http://www.edufy.org/

Knotebooks provides users with the tools to create, collaborate on and share customized, self-guided physics lessons.
http://knotebooks.com/

NASA Kid’s Club
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html

Another Periodic Table
http://ptable.com/

The CyberSurgeons simulation provides an authentic way for high school and college students to apply science knowledge and skills.
http://cybersurgeons.net/

Music

http://creatingmusic.com/
http://www.musictechteacher.com/musicquizzes.htm

Art

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
http://www.gimp.org/

All Areas

ICT Magic – Great resource to find web tools for video editing, photos, science, music, etc.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite
http://www.blender.org
Flubaroo - Grade online assignments in a single step, free!http://www.flubaroo.com
eduTeacher is a way to keep track of the growing number of web tools that can be used in the classroom settinghttp://www.edutecher.net/
Mini-Geek Fest Resourceshttp://livebinders.com/play/play/51493
Curriculumbits.com offer free online access to a growing range of interactive multimedia e-learning resources. The online Resource library contains games, quizzes, animations and videos in a variety of subjects.http://www.curriculumbits.com
Cybrarian – provides help for kids in grades 3-8 with homework assignments, current events, research papers, science fair projectshttp://www.cybrary.org
EduHound – educational topics, templates, technology tutorials and practical tipshttp://eduhound.com
Gapminder - statistical time series, which converts boring numbers into animated and interactive graphics displaying the trends in some cases back to the year 1800http://www.gapminder.org
Google for Educatorshttp://www.google.com/educators/
Smithsonian Education – resources for art & design, science a& technology, history & culture and language arts aligned with state standardshttp://smithsonianeducation.org/educators
Verizon Thinkfinity offers comprehensive teaching and learning resources created by our content partners – the most respected organizations in each academic subject and literacy.http://www.thinkfinity.org /
SLR Camera Simulatorhttp://camerasim.com/camera-simulator.html
Best Practices for Fair Use for 21st Century Educators
http://www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/ml-copyright-and-fair-use

Media Education Lab Free Resources
http://mediaeducationlab.com/curriculum/materials

Common Core State Standards

2011-11-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Everyone says their product meets Common Core State Standards - but it is far better to listen to the teachers who have to implement it:

http://bit.ly/vkUsBh

It take real teacher training, lessons and resources to make this happen. LTF Training is doing it!

New LTF Website is LIVE

2011-11-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

Heading to the iNACOL conference but before I head out, wanted to ensure that everyone knew that the NEW LTF Training Website is now LIVE and amazing!!

Please take a look - http://www.ltftraining.org

We are moving our program into the blended learning arena for our teacher training. This will allow teachers to access more resources during the school year. We have already delivered over 80,000 pre-test assessments so that our teachers can see where their students are to the high standards we set for our students.

More to come - we are using the Agilix platform and were able to get those assessments launched in just 2 moths - pretty amazing. See you at iNACOL!!

Disturbing College News

2011-11-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

From the Fritzwire today - two disturbing facts:

According a recent U.S. Department of Education report, higher education has reached a troubling milestone: the country's public and private four-year colleges are now spending a greater share of their institutional aid dollars on trying to attract the students they desire than on meeting the financial need of the low- and moderate-income students they enroll.The report from the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics provides the clearest picture to date of how colleges, under the sway of enrollment management consultants, have fundamentally changed the way they spend their institutional aid dollars, to the detriment of low-income students. Fifteen years ago, colleges primarily devoted their aid funds to making college more-accessible and affordable for those with financial need. But in the years since, colleges' priorities have dramatically shifted. The report found that by 2007-08, merit aid trumped need-based aid at these institutions. www.higheredwatch.org

NEW: The Institute for College Access and Success' (TICAS) most recent report, Student Debt and the Class of 2010, found that the two-thirds of college seniors who graduated with loans in 2010 carried an average of $25,250 in debt. They also faced the highest unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history at 9.1%. The report shows that average student debt levels vary widely by state as well as by college. To view debt levels for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and for more than 1,000 individual public and private nonprofit four-year colleges and universities.

www.ticas.org

So - we are spending tons of money to attract students who can't afford college and can't afford to pay it back because they can't get a job. Not really a great trend for American education.

Louisiana Teacher of the Year = LTF Training!

2011-11-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

A bit of a teaser here as I just saw the most amazing video from the LTF Training team from our research visit to Louisiana. Turns out that Ruston High School has the 2011 AND 2012 High School Teacher of the Year and they are both LTF trained!!

Congratulations to Emily Howell in Ruston, this years winner and Julie Bartlett Stephenson who was last years winner, is an amazing LTF Teacher and LTF Trainer!! This is the first time that Ruston High School has ever been recognized for the Louisian Department of Education for a teacher of the year award!

Because of LTF Training, this school gets results. Back to back wins for High School Teacher of the year is pretty darned amazing!!

Partnerships in Education / Non-Profits

2011-11-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Been doing a lot of work lately at Laying the Foundation on building partnerships. We already are doing some great thing with Texas Instruments and NASA on building our math and science lessons with their equipment and data.

But it has been really interesting that as money has become incredibly scarce in the non-profit world that more non-profits are seeking partnerships as a way to continue to grow without additional expense. It makes sense. There are so many great things going on in education but each of us alone cannot make the full impact on all schools. We have to work together to accomplish more.

More to come on this with some big announcements

Common Core and Online PD

2011-10-27T06:44:00.001-07:00

What do common core state standards and online teacher professional development have in common - LTF Training in a great blog post: https://www.ltftraining.org/OurProgram/LTFBlog/tabid/548/PostID/103/LTF-Training-The-List.aspx

This is the perfect storm for the right professional development. You have a more complex set of standards that teachers must implement quickly and there is no money for teacher training.

It looks like LTF Training will be in a lot more places next summer.

I guess irony can be pretty ironic..

2011-10-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

A classic quote from the Airplane movies and oh-so fitting in this exchange between Randi Weingarten from AFT and Andy Rotherham, Education writer for Time Magazine (in this case).

Basically Andy put out an article saying it is impossible to have a discussion of teacher issues because both sides immediately move to the extremes in chastising the other. Weingarten responds and immediately does what Andy says - goes to extremes on the testing issue. http://ideas.time.com/2011/10/25/randi-weingarten-responds/
Andy's response is below here response.

You really can't make this up sometimes!!!

Best Practice: Teaching Constantly Changing Velocity

2011-10-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our first foray into blended learning for LTF training came out incredibly well - a really great way to teach constantly changing velocity so that students truly understand the concept! Check it out:

Where am I?

2011-10-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

At Laying the Foundation - took us a while to get the bio up.

JebFest 2011!

2011-10-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

It is not really JebFest but the National Summit on Education Reform. But since I don't actually know anyone who calls it anything but JebFest, I decided to make the logo. Came out nice and should actually sell the T-Shirts this week.

Going to be a great conference!

Education - moving fast

2011-10-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty incredible year in education reform. School choice made huge gains, online education is rapidly expanding and reforms like the National Math and Science Initiative and our own Laying the Foundation are growing rapidly.

With that as the backdrop, I hit the road for JebFest2011 otherwise known as National Summit on Education. Pretty amazing line-up of speakers addressing the majors issues in education reform with a bonus of an appearance by the Chiefs for Change.

After that, it is on to board meetings with a special announcement (coming soon), the College Board Forum, Education hearings for the Oklahoma Legislature, iNACOL and ALEC.

Going to be a very busy and productive two months! (And we will squeeze in a NAVY - SMU tailgate here in Dallas)

Top 10 things students want in a teacher

2011-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Great poster from the College Board on the Top 10 Things students want in their teachers:

Be Pushy
Make the lesson relevant to our lives
Be relatable, but please don't be "too hip"
Teach us with words, sights and sounds
Be consistent and firm
Believe in us
Explain, explain, explain
Use our time wisely
Have clear objectives clearly communicated
Be a good example

Excellent advice from the main consumer of your product - knowledge.

STEM conference

2011-10-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Great STEM conference for teachers fro Laying the Foundation! If we don't invest in teachers, we cannot impact STEM education. This is a great way to improve college and career readiness in our country.

Online Higher Ed Boost - New GI Bill to pay housing!

2011-09-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

Many military students avoided online schools while using the GI Bill because they were going to lose the housing allowance. But in GI Bill 2.0 which starts in October, online students will receive a housing allowance of $673.50 per month. The VA says they expect 40,000 students to take advantage of this - they are wrong. They are only counting current students.

This is going to go a lot higher. Online schools offer the convenience and flexibility that military students want. It is also a lot easier to carry a full time online load, get the housing allowance and still keep a job - compared to a traditional campus.

The great thing here is that injured Veterans can now study at home. But watch - this is a HUGE benefit to online schools who know how to work with the military - they are going to attract a lot more students.

New Resources for Education Reform

2011-09-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

The first is our own LTF Training information quick guide for any school looking to build their pipeline of students ready for college success: http://issuu.com/ltftraining/docs/ltfquickguide/1

The second is the Bush Institute's Global Report Card: http://www.globalreportcard.org/
Provides a great look at how your district is doing compared to the rest of the world.

Two great resources for education reformers looking for real change in America's schools.

Amazing Online Education in South Dakota

2011-09-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Many of you may not realize the cutting edge online education going on in South Dakota that is changing lives for so many rural high school students. With a third of their high schools housing less than 100 students, it is difficult to provide a solid college prep curriculum. But with the non-profit Technology and Innovation in Education - South Dakota is getting it done in a big way.

I spent the day with them today and left wondering why no one has heard of them!

They are now serving 57 of the 75 school districts providing AP courses online so that more students have access.
They are the first of the National Math and Science Initiative states to go online
They have tripled the number of students taking and passing AP tests!! These are students that had no access before

Online learning is so critical in providing the variety of courses necessary for more rural students to succeed in college. It is great to see TIE getting it done!

College Prep Bait and Switch

2011-09-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

There is a lot more chatter about the current bait and switch in higher education. The first time I heard it was really about telling kids from inner city schools that if you work hard you can go to college - so they do but find out they can only afford community college or piling on college loans they can't afford.

Now the bait and switch is go to college and you will have incredible earning potential - but college grads find out they are ill prepared for the "real world" after college. From the USA Today College article "Good student, bad employee: The bait and switch of college preparation"

"College preparation isn't always aligned with workplace realities. College students are working to better themselves employees are working to better an organization."

Other issues

Focus on trail and revision at college - no one wants that in the real world as we need results now
Independent out of the box thinking is good in college - but most entry level jobs use little creativity and pretty much need rote thinking

These are the same kids that got trophies for showing up, didn't keep score until the later grades, and received constant affirmation of their worth. So the trauma of moving from college to the real world is even greater. It's time for higher ed to start truly preparing kids for real life.

STEM Workshop in Houston!

2011-09-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Great workshop for teachers on STEM from Laying the Foundation in Houston! eSchool News has the update here - STEM Education Workshop. Astronaut Alvin Drew will speak at the event which is designed to inspire teachers and provide the tools they need to ensure that every child recieves a great STEM Education!

Don't miss it.

NASA and LTF host STEM Conference!

2011-09-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Contact:

Kaci Schack
marketing@ltftraining.org
214.525.3009
www.ltftraining.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Laying the Foundation Announces Keynote Speaker for Educator Conference in Houston
DALLAS, TEXAS – Laying the Foundation (LTF), a nonprofit organization that provides content-focused teacher training and classroom resources, announced the keynote speaker today for its upcoming One-Day Educator Conference at J. Frank Dobie High School in Houston, Texas. The October 1st Conference is designed for 6th-12th grade English, mathematics, science, social studies, art history/studio, and music theory teachers with the goal of providing strategies for building a college-ready environment in their schools. Registration may be accessed through www.ltftraining.org .

The conference will feature NASA Astronaut Alvin Drew, who will speak about his experiences as an
engineer, the importance of STEM education, and his missions in space. He has degrees in physics,
astronautical engineering, aerospace science, and strategic studies in political science. For NASA, he has logged more than 612 hours in space while flying over 10 million miles. He has also served as the
Director of Operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.

The conference will feature over 50 workshops that will provide teachers with content knowledge,
strategies, and classroom-ready lessons on topics of interest they select. Teachers will leave the
conference with materials and strategies that they can use immediately in their classes to implement
rigorous state and national standards.

LTF has worked with NASA’s Human Research Program Education Outreach (HRPEO) project to provide teachers state-of-the-art math and science lessons that incorporate data from NASA space missions and LTF instructional strategies, and utilize the TI-Nspire for data analysis. These lessons provide another tool that teachers can use to get their students excited about science and to understand the critical need for math expertise.

“You cannot fix the college readiness gap or improve STEM education without great teachers with the
right resources,” said Dave Saba, CEO of Laying the Foundation. “Col. Drew will lead the way toward inspiring our teachers to challenge their students to become tomorrow’s scientists and engineers.”

About Laying the Foundation
Laying the Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the best content-based, pedagogy-driven, teacher-to-teacher training, supported by rigorous classroom-ready lessons and web-based resources to improve the quality of English, mathematics, and science instruction. LTF has trained over 34,000 teachers to date and has demonstrated dramatic increases in Advanced Placement exam participation and success in STEM subjects. LTF believes that training, mentoring, and empowering the teacher corps will lead to high standards of academic excellence for all students.
###

Changes to GI Bill start now!

2011-09-08T11:45:00.001-07:00

Huge changes to the GI Bill in GI Bill 2.0 - check out the complete list and dates at edumilitary blog.

Best STEM High Schools

2011-09-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that my current focus is improving college readiness in STEM subjects as CEO of Laying the Foundation (LTF Training). It is amazing to see so many schools really working hard to ensure that more students are college ready with a STEM focus.

If you are curious at the some of the best, online colleges put together a list of the top 12 high schools for STEM.

Let me know your thoughts on the list

Note to Indiana Schools: begging is not a strategy

2011-08-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have always admired the incredible passion and determination of Robert Enlow and the Friedman Foundation based in Indiana. They have worked so hard for students and now have a school choice program in Indiana. According to the Huffington Post, there is considerable pent up demand as over 3,200 students are leaving their public school and using the vouchers to go to a better school.

People are leaving schools that do not meet their needs. In the real world, if your customers leaves, you find ways to attract them back by providing the service they demand - in this case actually educating the students.

But the response in Indiana is to whine about losing tax dollars to private schools and begging parents to keep your students in a school that doesn't meet that student's needs. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail next year and instead of begging, schools will look for ways to improve so that they can attract more students. What a great deal for Indiana students!

More For Profit Cuts

2011-08-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Military cuts to Tuition Assistance are yet another slice to for-profit enrollments/revenue. Many military use for-profits to earn their education. Just another hit.

Enrollment Down at For-Profits

2011-08-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sharp contrast to the blogpost below where Straighterline.com is doubling enrollment.

At for profits, the Wall Street Journal, enrollments are down as much as 45%:

"New-student enrollments have plunged—in some cases by more than 45%—in recent months, reflecting two factors: Companies have pulled back on aggressive recruiting practices amid criticism over their high student-loan default rates. And many would-be students are questioning the potential pay-off for degrees that can cost considerably more than what's available at local community colleges."

Economics do work - for-profits were way too expensive for what students received so it was a only a matter of time before revenues plunged.

Efficient and Cost Effective Higher Ed

2011-08-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

New York Times with a nice piece on Burk Smith and Straighterline.com entitled "A Way to Speed the Pace". Their online program allows students to complete their gen ed courses at significantly lower rates than going to a university - plus you can complete the course on your own time. The idea of completing freshman year for less than $1,000 and doing it in significantly less time is a game changer in higher education.

College is not affordable and Burk and his incredibly awesome team are fixing that. He is not just cutting tuition by a third over going to a state school, it also eliminates a full year of housing, living expenses and for many, lost wages. Literally for a tenth of the cost, students can complete their freshman year - and do it in six months.

It's not just the earth moving in Baltimore - there is also a huge paradigm shift.

End the 6 Year Plan!

2011-07-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

Great article in the New York Times for MyEdu! The goal of founder Michael Crosno is to help students stay on track in college. Having two college age students, I whole-heartedly agree. College advising is horrible and this means students have to take charge of their college career.

MyEdu is designed to help. tMyEdu now includes 775 colleges and universities, up from about 60 when Mr. Crosno joined. In the first five months of this year, he said, the site logged about 2.5 million users.
MyEdu also lets students compare textbook costs. Part of the money from sales made through the site comes back to the company, one revenue stream alongside contextual advertising and sponsored content. Mr. Crosno said early efforts to charge for MyEdu services fell flat.

It is a free site with professor rating, degree management and text book cost comparison. It also has a way to balance your courseload, calculate your GPA and track your credits.

If you are one of the many students without unlimited funds, you need tools to help you succeed - this on is free and can help!

College Access

2011-07-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hilary Pennington from the Gates Foundation spoke at the Education Commission of the States (ECS) conference this morning on the need or change in education. One program that she pointed out is Western Governor's University as an alternative delivery model to improve college completion.

The two biggest barriers to completion are cost and time. Western Governor's costs $6,000 a semester and is competency based. Many people graduate in 36 months!! That brings college back into reach for so many more people. They have also partnered with Straighterline which provides gen ed courses at a lower cost and shorter time requirements.

Very cool to see two great innovations being talked about at such a high level.

College Affordability

2011-07-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

In order to help students navigate rising college costs, the U.S. Department of Education has posted a College Affordability and Transparency Center. As far as websites go - it isn't that intuitive but if you plug away at it you can find the data you need to make an informed decision on the right college for you.

Looking at the charts - if you live in California; move, immediately. Head to Texas or New York

It can definitely help you find an affordable college so you then can focus on the programs that might be right for you.

Teacher training that actually works!

2011-06-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite video now! These are just two great teachers talking about their LTF Training and what it will mean for their students. I love this group!!

Frontline Documentary on Military & For-Profits

2011-06-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Not good - when you throw $10 billion out to the business sector it is not surprising that it gets abused. There are good schools, but too many with questionable student recruiting tactics giving the industry a bad name.

Frontline: Educating Sergeant Pantzke: For-profit colleges primise veterans a high quality degree - - but do they deliver?

When you pull that crap on the military - it will combe back to bite you in a big way.

Hartford - 34th State Capitol

2011-06-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

Great state capitol here in Hartford - makes the 34th that I have had the honor to visit. What a truly great country.

A WOW moment for teachers!

2011-06-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

LTF Training is amazing. I work here and just seeing the passion of this team is incredible! But if you don't believe, please watch the teachers who just went through the Pre-AP training here in Texas.

Future of Online Learning

2011-06-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Big fan of Michael Horn and received the following email from them - definintely worth a read:

"Over the past two years, we have published a series of case studies about the fast-growing field of online learning in K-12 education. The case studies shed light on some of the challenges states and school districts nationwide are facing in their quest to implement online learning.In a policy brief released today, "Moving from inputs to outputs to outcomes: The future of education policy," we summarize the findings from the case studies to reveal some policy recommendations for states and districts to implement online learning most effectively.

Our major finding is that policymakers have largely failed to create legislation that rewards systems, providers, and operators for successful student performance. Instead, policymakers too often focus on input measures, such as seat-time, student-to-teacher-ratios, and teacher-certification requirements. This inhibits innovation and diminishes the transformative promise of online learning.

The policy brief exposes a few key actions policymakers must take to allow online learning to unlock a path toward the creation of a high-quality student-centric education system. A few examples include: paying online providers for student performance; giving school operators control over budgets and how they allocate dollars; and allowing students to demonstrate competency through assessments, portfolios, or other means anytime they complete a course, not just at limited fixed times throughout the year.

Managing this policy shift will challenge our assumptions about what education looks like and how it happens. But with the emerging world of digital learning, the potential to reinvent and reinvigorate the country’s education system and better serve each and every student has never been brighter."

Easy vs Hard Majors

2011-06-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

I got an email from the folks at Schools.com that is pretty cool. They looked at the value of a college major based on earnings compared to difficulty based on GPA. Kind of a cost vs benefit for college majors which I really like.

Courtesy of: Schools.com

There is some great data to help you choose a major. A college degree is a huge investment - knowing the cost benefit of the path you take should help.

Pre-AP BLOG! Great find

2011-06-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

The great team over at Laying the Foundation has a new blog that will help Pre-Ap and AP Teachers ensure they have the training and resources to deliver a challenging curriculum to their students. They get results so make sure you tune in to the LTF Blog and learn more!

NYT Op Ed to all New Grads: "It's Not About You"

2011-05-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

David Brooks should have been the commencement speaker at every graduation using his Op-Ed in the New York Times "It's Not About You". This is the generation that got a trophy for every sport where they showed up. Everything they do is great and they don't play sudden death, they play sudden victory.

From the Op-Ed:
"More important, their lives have been perversely structured. This year’s graduates are members of the most supervised generation in American history. Through their childhoods and teenage years, they have been monitored, tutored, coached and honed to an unprecedented degree.
Yet upon graduation they will enter a world that is unprecedentedly wide open and unstructured. Most of them will not quickly get married, buy a home and have kids, as previous generations did. Instead, they will confront amazingly diverse job markets, social landscapes and lifestyle niches. Most will spend a decade wandering from job to job and clique to clique, searching for a role."

And
"Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

The graduates are also told to pursue happiness and joy. But, of course, when you read a biography of someone you admire, it’s rarely the things that made them happy that compel your admiration. It’s the things they did to court unhappiness — the things they did that were arduous and miserable, which sometimes cost them friends and aroused hatred. It’s excellence, not happiness, that we admire most."

And the big finish that says it all:
"Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself."

Great stuff Mr. Brooks and I hope more people pass this around to new graduates so they are not disillusioned with the real world.

College Majors and their Value

2011-05-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Many who read this blog or talk to me know that I feel very strongly about investing $100,000 in something that might not pay off in the long term. Now Georgetown backs that up - but also demonstrates that I might be a little bit wrong.

Their study - What's it worth studies to value of a college degree by major for both undergrad and graduate degrees.

No real shocks here - just some good solid data.

"While there is a lot of variation in earnings over a lifetime, the authors find that all undergraduate majors are worth it,‟ even taking into account the cost of college and lost earnings. However, the lifetime advantage ranges from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors"

So I am right that a major makes a huge difference in earnings - but the value of a college degree still is worth the investement regardless of the major - but you really need a graduate degree:

"Liberal Arts and Humanities majors end up in the middle of the pack in terms of earnings and employment. They are the third most popular major group, and earn median incomes of $47,000. Moreover, about 40 percent of people with these majors obtain a graduate degree, reaping a return of almost 50 percent. Liberal Arts and Humanities majors generally fare well in the workforce, ending up in professional, white-collar, and education occupations "
So go ahead and get a degree - but living on $47,000 a year is tough. But you need to do what you love as long as you can still pay off those student loans......

Pre-AP training making a difference

2011-05-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Great article in the Kentucky Teacher about Laying the Foundation for AP Success! it is truly impressive to see teachers take to the LTF Training which is so much more than professional development. Teachers really appreciate the classroom ready lessons, lesson plans and materials that help them push themselves and their students.

As Denise Rambo says - "“wonderful ‘playbook’ for enriching, engaging and challenging exercises that give the students’ brains a great workout, and the students actually enjoy carrying out ‘the plays’”. Rambo said the lessons take her students to a new level of academic expectation by challenging them to use critical-thinking skills.

And that is what being "college ready' is all about - pushing to a new level academic challenge and critical thinking.

Way to go LTF Training!!

Social Media in Education

2011-04-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

After week one at Laying the Foundation, it became apparent that we are the best kept secret in education - what a perfect opportunity to use social media to get the word out.

So we have launched twitter @ltftraining, and our facebook page, blog and forums are coming. So we are starting from scratch and will see how fast we can ramp up.

The goal of social media in education has to be to improve your performance metrics. In our case, we want to increase:

The number of teachers going through our pre-AP programs
The effectiveness of those teachers by creating a full community of LTF teachers

Right now our website gets about 233 unique hits per day - pretty low. So come along for the ride as we use social media for our non-profit education teach training group to take it to the next level!

Broad Finalist Ysleta ISD uses LTF!

2011-04-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ysleta ISD is a Broad Finalist this year and we are hoping for the best here at Laying the Foundation. One of the areas of focus to become a Broad Finalist is to:

"Improving college readiness, as evidenced by graduation rates, SAT and ACT exam scores and participation rates, and Advanced Placement exam participation and passing rates"

LTF has been working for Ysleta for over 5 years providing teacher training and resources for grades 6 through 12 to help better prepare students for AP participation and testing. Quite a testimony to the long term impact of working with LTF.

A great day for our team!

How do you improve AP performance? Start in Middle School!

2011-04-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

Laying the Foundation (LTF) believes that AP performance starts with training Pre-AP teachers. From our materials:

Research shows that teachers are the key ingredient to improving student performance. For this reason, LTF provides a comprehensive teacher training program that ensures teachers have the strategies, pedagogy, and content knowledge necessary to raise the level of instructional rigor.

Laying the Foundation does not provide a curriculum. LTF’s approach is to provide, in conjunction with the teacher training program, an extensive and ever-growing collection of lessons, labs, projects, and formative assessments that can be used to raise the level of instructional rigor of any curriculum. This feature allows districts to make the critical curricular decisions about how LTF materials are embedded into the existing curriculum to meet the Common Core Standards.

More to come but you should have LTF in your state / district.

New CEO for Laying the Foundation!

2011-04-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

It is official as of today, Dave Saba is the new CEO of Laying the Foundation - press release here.

In a brief note sent to supporters:
Greetings!

Exciting times in education and for me personally as I am humbled and honored to take over today as CEO for Laying the Foundation – a non-profit teacher training group based in Dallas that has already trained over 31,000 teachers to advance their practice in math, science and English. Our goal is to improve math and science performance on AP testing by providing a solid foundation for students in grades 6 through 12. We work with affiliates in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, South Dakota and Virginia.

We are expanding and looking for partners in all states who understand the critical need for improved STEM performance for middle and high school students. I look forward to working with you to empower and develop teachers to ensure student success.

Respectfully,
Dave Saba

Laying the Foundation for U.S. Success

2011-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am extremely honored and humbled to be asked to lead the United States back to being a leader in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The U.S. ranked 23rd in Science and 31st in Math for the 2009 PISA results which is just wrong. We will not be an economic leader if our students lag so far behind all other countries in STEM knowledge and performance.

The answer is simple but difficult;

Provide the resources to increase the skills and knowledge of teachers who teach STEM subjects
Provide better classroom resources for students
Start in Middle School

That is exactly what Laying the Foundation does - it is a non-profit that focuses on helping middle and high school STEM teachers improve their practice and results and it provides classroom resources to help students get excited about mastering STEM subjects. The goal is to provide a solid foundation so that these students will eventually take and pass STEM AP exams.

Next Monday I will officially become the CEO of Laying the Foundation. My modest goal is to bring the United States back to at least a top 5 ranking on the PISA results and ensure our country can remain an economic super-power for years to come.

We have our work cut out for us. Our team is amazing, our programs are outstanding and we are ready to help your state or district take a giant leap forward.

Blended Learning

2011-03-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Great article by Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff in EdNext called Future Schools, Blending face-to-face and online learning. They give you a great taste of the success that Rocketship Schools, School of One, Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and High Tech High.

This is some great information on the fastest growing and successful part of K-12 learning and deserves a read. Bottom line - when schools must do more with less, they have to use technology and blended learning can help accelerate learning at a much lower cost.

Military families get a boost from White House

2011-03-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

If children of servicemembers are more likely to go into the military, you should make sure they are trained in science, math, engineering and technology so they can become the next generation of soldier, sailor, airman or marine.

And when an initiative helps achieve multiple goals, it usually gets done in a big way.

Such is the case with the National Math and Science Initiative's new military program - Initiative for Military families that you can read about at the EduMilitary blog! With White House and DoD backing this will be a great thing for military families!

Education Unsustainable

2011-03-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

The impact of the budget woes in this country are going to seriously impact higher education funding and we keep hearing the word unsustainable. First as it relates to military funding for education and now from the Chronicle on Pell Grants:

"As Congress grapples with a $10.7-billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program, some lawmakers are beginning to ask whether the program, which has been the cornerstone of the federal system of student financial aid for almost 40 years, has become unsustainable.

The cost of Pell Grants has doubled over the past three years, largely because of increases in the number of recipients and growth in the maximum award. This year some 9.4 million students are expected to receive the grants"

Cuts can come in two ways - reduce the maximum award and/or reduce the number of students. More to come as our unsustainable budget woes increase.

Khan Academy - serious disruptive

2011-03-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Finally watched the TED video of Salman Khan: Let's use to video to reinvent education. Great idea to turn education its head - do homework in school and watch lectures at home. His thought is that having the lectures on video makes it easier for students to start, stop, rewind, go back to content they have forgotten and just go at their own pace. Then the teachers and other students can help coach through the problems. Radical and fascinating education ideas.

The other fundamental difference - getting 10 in a row right in order to move on. True mastery - for those who are behind, they actually have to master the content before moving on. And he has data. The "slow kids" suddenly become advanced about 5 weeks in.

Technology in education is moving so fast that companies once thought to be leading edge could also be left hind. It is going to be a wild ride.

Brookline College - great experience

2011-03-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Had a great opportunity to tour Brookline College in Phoenix last Friday and came away very impressed. There is so much bad publicity surrounding for-profit colleges and universities it is nice to see one that is truly focused on students. Their belief that growth comes from serving the student and helping them achieve their goals is refreshing in an industry where CPL and CPE dominate the conversation (cost per lead and cost per enrollment).

There will be fallout in the industry. Areial Sokol just sent an update where he talks about how hard that will be when there is a barrier to exit in this industry because accreditors have made it so difficult for organizations to buy out another player.

This will be a fascinating time in higher education. But as long as there are schools like Brookline, for-profits have a chance.

VirtualEDU - taking off!

2011-03-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Game-changer is an overused description lately except as it applies to the NCAA's. But when VirtualEDU started offering all 300 accredited online middle and high school courses for $49.95, that truly is a game-changer. In the first 2 weeks of March they had over 150 new students enroll in their online courses from all over the world.

But that is not all. We had yet another education leader start their own virtual school through VirtualEDU's turnkey virtual school solutions. This allows our content to be customized to meet truly meet the needs of their students.

Exciting times in virtual education! More to come

Gov Martinez - education reforms progress!

2011-03-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Final week for the New Mexico's legislature to help students move out of 49th place in education performance. Here is an update on the reforms - a lot happens today!

HB 21, legislation to end social promotion in the third grade, is up first on the agenda in the Senate Education Committee tomorrow morning. The committee meeting begins at 9:00 a.m., in the Capitol Room 311. This is the bill’s last stop before hitting the Senate floor.
SB 427 (companion to HB 355), an initiative to grade schools on an A-F scale, is up on the Senate floor tomorrow morning.
HB 355 (companion to SB 427), an initiative to grade schools on an A-F scale, is up in the House Education Committee. The meeting is slated to begin at 8:00 am in the Capitol Room 317.

Governor Martinez’s initiative to reform outstanding New Mexican teachers (SB 502) is slated to be heard in the House Labor and Human Resources Committee on Thursday.

Congrats to all - but especially Secretary Hanna Skandera for keeping things moving.

Incredible Results for Middle School Math

2011-03-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Had a great talk today with Scott Laidlaw of Imagine Education which developed Ko's Journey - an innovative online interactive middle school math game and curriculum supplement. It is designed to increase student achievement through game experiences and a once a week tutoring session.

The results: those participating were 82% more likely to score in the proficient category compared to their peers.

This is very cool. Scott and his team focused on making math less scary and reduced increase critical thinking through the scenarios presented. The program can be purchased by schools or for home use.

More to come as I really believe in using new tools to teach math!