The Myth of Learning Styles- Ani Aharonian

"View of New York City From Hoboken, New Jersey", oil
on paper laid on panel- Thomas W. Whitley, 1865

Looking at how students study, it is obvious that people approach learning in different ways. Some students like to read the textbook once through, some highlight and annotate the textbook extensively, some write and rewrite their notes, others record and play back lectures, others still make and review flashcards, and so on… But what do these differences in study strategies reflect? There are many possibilities. They may reflect variations in the way that people learn, or it may reflect differences in work ethic or learned habits. Researchers have mistakenly interpreted these differences in preference to reflect differences in the way that people learn and learning styles has become a popular and widespread pedagogical approach.

The main claim or hypothesis associated with the learning styles approach is that matching instructional style to individual learning styles will yield superior learning. A 2012 survey of educators in the UK and Netherlands revealed that 94% believed that students perform better when they receive instruction in their preferred learning style. Aspiring educators are being taught that instruction should be tailored to the distinct learning styles of students. Management and business programs are also increasingly propagating this claim in the context of workplace.

Perhaps this idea has taken strong hold because it is an appealing one. It is consistent with our desire to perceive ourselves as individuals, it is a positive and optimistic proposition that each person has equivalent potential to learn if the instruction can be matched to their individual learning style, and it also places the responsibility for students’ achievement (or lack thereof) on the teachers and the educational system rather than the students.

What evidence is there that this approach, around for a few decades now, affects learning outcomes? Hardly any.

Which Grade Should You Actually Teach? - Take this quiz

Find out which grade you should teach based on your personality. Your ability to connect with children, energy level, value system, outlook on life, and personal goals all play an important role in determining which grade is right for you. Find out now!

Click HERE to take the quiz 

Hoboken Educator is State’s Teacher of the Year

Children playing at Hudson County Park (1909)
(Columbus Park, Hoboken NJ)
Photo: Hoboken Historical Collection 

A Hoboken special education teacher, who is an ardent supporter of using technology to enhance teaching of autistic students, has been selected the New Jersey State Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015.

Teacher Mark Mautone, who teaches preschool autistic children at Wallace Elementary School in Hoboken, was honored by Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe and the state Board of Education at a ceremony in Trenton last week.

Six finalists from around the state were also honored at the ceremony.

An educator for 19 years, Mautone is an advocate of using technology in the classroom. He has given presentations from New York City to San Francisco on topics such as using apps to help children with disabilities.

“Mr. Mautone has a deep enthusiasm for helping his students overcome the challenges they face so that they can receive the best experience possible in the classroom,” Hespe said. “He is an inspiration to teachers, parents and members of the community.”

Mautone is also actively involved in autism support groups, and serves on numerous professional advisory boards and task forces that help disabled children, and that help increase understanding of disabled individuals. He has also organized training for teachers, parents and students on autism and bullying.

“It is my belief that all children, despite the obstacles, deserve the highest quality of education possible so that they can learn to their maximum potential and lead a productive life as independently as possible,” Mautone wrote in his application.

Mautone, who began working as an instructional assistant with disabled children 19 years ago, received his bachelor’s degree from Kean University and a master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Caldwell University.

The other six finalists for State Teacher of the Year were Stephanie Cardoso, a fifth-grade teacher from Martin Luther King Elementary School in Edison; Peter Davis, a technology teacher from Belhaven Avenue Middle School in Linwood; Cynthia Leatherwood, an English teacher from Dennis Township Middle School; Salvatore Lima, a science teacher from West Caldwell Tech, within the Essex County Vocational School District; Kathryn Tricarico, a kindergarten teacher from Adamsville Primary School in the Bridgewater-Raritan School District; and Coleen Weiss-Magasic, a science teacher from West Milford Township High School.

The Teacher of the Year program is administered by the New Jersey Department of Education, with winners selected based on their applications and interview sessions with an independent panel of educators. The process begins each year at the local level, where school and district-level winners are selected, and progresses through the county level, and then the state.

The winner receives a six-month sabbatical, sponsored by the Educational Testing Service, during which time the Teacher of the Year works with the state education department on special projects.

The State Teacher of the Year also gives presentations around the state and participates in national activities, including meeting the president of the United States. The winner receives a leased car for a year, courtesy of the New Jersey Education Association, and a package of classroom SMART Technologies from that company.

For more information, please see the NJDOE Teacher of the Year web page.

Where We Donate vs. Diseases That Kill Us

Julia Belluz created the infographic below to compare how much money is donated to fight various disease and how many people in the USA die from those same diseases for an article in Vox. 

Stevens Institute of Technology: Hoboken, N.J. Among Top 10 Engineering Colleges in the U.S.- USA Today

County Executive Tom DeGise addresses media at the ribbon 

cutting of the new community park space beneath reconstructed 

14St. Viaduct. He was joined by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer 

and Freeholder Anthony Romano. Dec 15, 2014

Engineering is one of the highest paid degrees you can get — and it’s a popular choice for students who are interested in building and developing products, as well as for those who have a knack for math and science. The list below breaks down the top 10 places to get an engineering degree in the U.S. The list comes from College Factual and is a ranking of colleges based on their overall quality.

Of special recognition is Stevens Institute of Technology-- Stevens is a highly selective private research university located in Hoboken, NJ, close to New York City. The school has high academic standards, but also has a high price tag to match. It offers degrees up to the Ph.D. level, with the most popular undergraduate majors being Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering. Students with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from this university report average starting salaries of $60,000.

Here are the Top Ten programs:

1. Colorado School of Mines: Golden, Colo.

2. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus: Atlanta

3. Missouri University of Science and Technology: Rolla, Mo.

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Cambridge, Mass.

5. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Troy, N.Y.

6. Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Worcester, Mass.

7. Stevens Institute of Technology: Hoboken, N.J.

8.New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology: Socorro, N.Mex.

9. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor, Mich.

10. Illinois Institute of Technology: Chicago

Note: this is not a ranking for a specific engineering major, but an overview of how the school does overall for all the engineering degrees it offers. See this description of the methodology for more information.

Seven things teachers are sick of hearing from school reformers - Ian Altman

Newspaper girl- 4th and Garden Sts. Hoboken, NJ -1912

In this post, Georgia teacher Ian Altman explains what he and his colleagues are really sick of hearing from reformers. Altman is an award-winning high school English teacher in Athens, where he has lived since 1993, as well as an advocate for teachers and students.  He has presented at several national conferences and published in the Journal of Language and Literacy Education. He won the 2014 University of Georgia College of Education Distinguished Alumni Crystal Apple Award as well as the 2012 University of Chicago Outstanding Educator award.

Altman’s list of seven things that reformers should stop saying to teachers comes from conversations he has had with educators across the country and speaks to the fury felt by many teachers who see their expertise being devalued and their profession denigrated.

What are these 7 things reformers should know according to Altman? 

1. Don’t tell us that you know more about good instruction than we do. 

2. Don’t talk to us about the importance and rigor of the standards.

3. Don’t tell us about testing data.

4. Don’t tell us “The research says…” unless you’re willing to talk about what it really says.

5. Stop with the advice about teaching critical thinking skills.   

6. Stop using education reform clichés.

7. Don’t tell us to leave politics out of the classroom. 

You can read the full details of each of these statements by pointing your browser to the original article by clicking HERE. 

Why Corporations Want Our Pubic Schools--

This article is from Education Uprising, the Spring 2014 issue of YES! Magazine.

Detailed Board Agenda- Hoboken Board of Education December 2014

AGENDA

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION
158 FOURTH STREET, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030
(MEETING HELD AT 158 FOURTH STREET, DEMAREST AUDITORIUM, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030)
7:00 P.M.

  HBOE Dec 2014 Agenda

Further Analysis of the 2014 Hoboken BOE Election - By Ward Analysis and Additive Value

Initial analysis on the 2014 Hoboken Board of Education election was previously discussed on this blog. Further analysis of data from the Hoboken BOE election was recently completed. This analysis was conducted by ward but not by district within ward. Eight candidates competed for three, three-year spots on the Hoboken Board of Education. The candidates ran under three slates: Parents for Change; Parents for Progress; and Parents for Progress and Education for All Children. 

In order to look at the election results a little closer, a number of variables were created (see spreadsheet below): 

LYNNDiff = The average vote of Murray and Waiters minus the vote of Lynn Danzker  (for example for the First Ward (208+207/2)  minus the vote of Danzker (161) = 46.5
GRAYDiff = The average vote for Angley and Stromwall minus the vote for Gray 
Lynn+Gray = LYNNDiff + GRAYDiff 
PETERDiff = The difference between Peter Biancamano and Francis Rhodes-Kearns 

Danzker and Gray had a total of 495 LESS votes than their slate mates. Biancamano had 468 MORE votes than his slate mate. Clearly, there is not a one to one correspondence and this analysis does not take into account those people who voted for only 1 or 2 candidates but it gives a little sense of Biancamano having an additive difference (picking up votes) rather than any other data driven explanation.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Stanford researcher asks: What is a summer job worth?

Low school attendance rates and school dropout in many urban high schools present serious hurdles for policy efforts to close the academic achievement gap that exists along socio-economic and racial lines.  At the same time, policymakers and researchers are paying increased attention to how students’ experiences when school is out of session, especially during the summer, influence educational success. 

Recent work by Jacob Leos-Urbel (link is external), associate director the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (link is external) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, provides new evidence regarding the impact of large-scale summer youth employment programs on high school students’ school attendance and academic achievement in the following school year. 

Many cities across the country, including throughout California, offer publicly-funded summer youth employment programs.  Although not explicitly focused on bolstering school attendance or academic success, summer youth employment may lead to improvements in school attendance and other educational outcomes.

Beyond increasing financial well-being, employment may foster non-cognitive skills such as responsibility, positive work habits, motivation, time management, determination, and self-confidence. Summer employment may also benefit youth by keeping them engaged in positive supervised activities when school is out of session, and is considerably less likely to detract time from educational pursuits compared to work during the school year.     

Little prior research has examined the impact of work during the summer on students’ educational outcomes.  Leos-Urbel estimates the impact of summer work experiences on high school students’ attendance and educational outcomes in the following school year using data from New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). 

Due to high demand for jobs through SYEP, the city uses a lottery system in an effort to equitably allocate program slots.  This lottery system effectively assigns the offer to participate or not participate in SYEP at random, creating a control group of youth who apply to SYEP but are not chosen, which allows for causal estimates of the relationship between summer jobs and academic success. 

The study uses SYEP data for 36,550 program applicants in 2007 matched to education files from the New York City Department of Education.  The primary outcome of interest is school attendance in the school year following application to SYEP.  Additional analyses examine statewide high school math and English exams attempted and passed, and scores on these exams. 

The author finds that overall SYEP has a positive impact on school attendance of 1 to 2 percent on average, or roughly 2-3 days.  Increases are larger for students who may be at greater educational risk; those age 16 or older who did not attend school at high rates in the prior school year.  For these students, the average increase in attendance is approximately 3 percent, or 4-5 additional school days attended.  In addition, for this group SYEP increases the probability of attempting and passing English and math statewide (Regents) exams, although there is no significant effect on test scores. The increased probability of passing appears to be due to the increased probability of attempting the exams rather than improved test performance.

Research on summer jobs programs is especially salient in the current economic climate, in which the availability of summer employment for teens has decreased considerably and public funding for summer jobs has waxed and waned.  For example, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an influx of funding for summer jobs for low-income youth but was only temporary. 

This study is one of the first to provide causal estimates of the effect of a large-scale summer youth employment program on students’ academic outcomes.  The findings suggest that, although not explicitly focused on improving educational outcomes, summer youth employment programs may be an important tool amid policy efforts to address the problem of low school attendance.   

This article was originally posted on the PACE blog: http://www.edpolicyinca.org/blog/what-summer-job-worth-impact-summer-youth-employment-academic-outcomes#sthash.kXmZU59m.dpuf (link is external)  (link is external)

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) is an independent, non-partisan research center based at Stanford University, the University of California – Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and the University of California – Davis.

RIP Coach Vincent Ascoles

"Once a Redwing, Always a Redwing"

Improving Math Performance- Assistant Professor Theodore Chao’s research making gains in teacher identity, student learning

The following is a wonderful recent article about Dr. Theodore Chao who is a new Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at The Ohio State University. Before accepting his position at OSU, "Teddy" completed a two year post doctoral stint at Harvard University working with Dr. Jon R. Star on a research project entitled "Helping Teachers to Use and Students to Learn From Contrasting Examples: A Scale-Up Study in Algebra I (2008-2013)" by the National Science Foundation. Before heading to Harvard, Dr. Chao was a graduate student in the STEM Education Program at The University of Texas at Austin and was a TA for me for many of my UTeach classes. Wonderful to see former students making contributions to the field as well as to their home institutions. Cheers Teddy! -Dr. Petrosino 

Mathematics doesn’t have to be taught the same way to all people.

In fact, if children are left to explore the subject on their own, parents and teachers may be surprised at the results.

“Children are natural mathematicians,” said Theodore Chao, assistant professor of mathematics education in the Department of Teaching and Learning. “But over time, we tell our kids to learn in certain ways and they stop listening to their own intuition.”

"Math teachers are diverse and math matters differently to different people."

- Assistant Professor Theodore Chao

Chao and his co-investigators are exploring this theory with the help of technology. Using his background in computer science and film and video studies, Chao developed a smartphone app that helps elementary-aged children share and discuss their math strategies with teachers. Students use the app to record short videos to explain how they solve various math problems. Teachers are then able to watch, and rewatch, how the student arrived at the answer.

Early results of the study show students are gaining better understanding of their mathematical skills; and teacher performance is improving too.

“Teachers are becoming better listeners and students are able to explain their work more clearly,” Chao said.

It’s a combination that models one of Chao’s teaching philosophies. “Good teaching is listening deeply to students and then being able to respond,” he said.

Chao and his research colleagues have already completed a preliminary study using their new learning app, Thought Bubble, but plan on additional research to test additional theories.

From programmer to professor

Chao is one of the Department of Teaching and Learning’s newest faculty members. Before becoming professor at Ohio State, he was a seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher at I.S. 318 in Brooklyn, New York – the same school where the documentary Brooklyn Castle was filmed. The film takes a look inside the middle school and the challenges and triumphs facing members of the school’s championship chess team.

His start in education began with tutoring his landlord’s son. It turned out that tutoring math was a lot more fun than computer programming for Chao. That led him to apply and be accepted to the New York City Teaching Fellows, which trains talented teachers who serve in low-income communities in New York City.

FACULTY PROFILE
Name: Theodore Chao
Title: Assistant Professor
Program Areas: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Research Interests: Photo-elicitation and photo-voice; critical pedagogy and equity in mathematics; technology for teacher education; elementary mathematics; teacher mathematics

After being in the classroom and seeing how teachers were expected to teach and students expected to learn, Chao saw the opportunity to be a change leader.

“I really wanted to make a difference in educational policy,” he said.

To do that, he was encouraged to earn a doctorate degree so his voice, and research, could be heard.

Mixing personal, professional in the classroom

Joining the faculty at the start of the 2014-15 school year, Chao came to Ohio State after a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University.

It was at Harvard where he continued to explore his dissertation research on mathematics teacher identity he started at The University of Texas. Chao’s curiosity in the topic was fueled by his own personal experiences as a math teacher.

“I always felt my identity as a math teacher was being defined for me,” he said.

As he began exploring math teacher identity more and more, it was apparent teachers were having their professional identities shaped through policies, politics and stereotypes. To get to the root of the issue, Chao looked away from traditional research methods in favor of a concept called photo-voice.

Photo-voice uses personal photographs important to an interviewee to explore different aspects of his or her life. The method allows Chao to develop narratives with mathematics teachers to understand the personal and professional sides of their identities and gain insight into emotional moments.

“It shows that math teachers are people and they are not one size fits all,” Chao said. “Math teachers are diverse and math matters differently to different people.”

Chao has already applied this research approach to the importance of identity with Latino/a teachers and now is exploring how gender, race and the “minority myth” affects how Asian American math teachers approach teaching.

The OSU opportunity

Being a student, a researcher or a professor at Ohio State comes with all kinds of opportunities to explore the topics you want to research, Chao said. The university has many connections that are a tremendous help.

“There’s a good mix of schools, teachers and administrators who do what they can to help Ohio State and the field of education,” Chao said. “And there is a definite push to interact in other disciplines across the university.”

To learn more about the mathematics education program in the College of Education and Human Ecology, explore the degree options in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematicsprogram.

Dr. Candace Walkington: Personalizing Mathematics Instruction to Students’ Interests: Tradeoffs and Design Principles

Personalizing Mathematics Instruction to Students’ Interests: Tradeoffs and Design Principles

Abstract: The idea of personalizing instruction to the interests and experiences of learners has begun to gain traction with the rise of advanced technology systems and initiatives like the Gates Foundation’s funding of “personalized learning” schools. In fact, personalization of learning has been identified as a Grand Challenge for this generation by the U.S. Department of Education (National Education Technology Plan) and the National Academy of Engineering. However, research on the impact of personalized learning, and more importantly on how to implement personalized learning effectively, is not yet established. In this talk, I will explore six recent studies I conducted on personalized learning in middle grades mathematics and interpret the results with respect to four design principles for personalized learning environments. Important tradeoffs emerge as we consider the time, cost, and learning outcomes most valued when personalizing instruction.

Dr. Walkington is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Methodist University. She was my graduate student while at The University of Texas at Austin.

2015 US News and World Report- Best Graduate Schools of Education

According to US News and World Report, a teacher must first be a student, and graduate education program rankings can help you find the right classroom. With the U.S. News rankings of the top education schools, narrow your search by location, tuition, school size and test scores. The following are the 2015 US News and World Report Rankings for Graduate Programs in Education (see table 1).

I received my Master's from Teachers College, Columbia University (#8), my Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University (#2), my post doctoral studies were done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (#5 overall, #1 pubic) and I have been a tenured professor at The University of Texas at Austin (#10 overall, #4 public). 

Table 1

Methodology: 2015 Best Education Schools Rankings 

Ranking of The University of Texas at Austin

UT Ranked 30th Worldwide by U.S. News and World Report

In its first ever global university ranking released Wednesday, U.S. News and World Report recognized UT as the 30th-best university in the world. 

The publication previously listed the University as No. 53 in its 2015 national rankings. According to U.S. News, the global rankings are based on different criteria from the national list, including schools’ academic research and overall reputation — not their separate undergraduate or graduate programs. 

For its global rankings, the publication used measures such as faculty publications, academic citations and highly cited papers by drawing on information from Thomson Reuters, an organization that tracks research productivity. 

The overall rankings include 500 universities in 49 countries.

For 2014-2015, the Times Higher Education World rankings ranked UT 28th in the world.

What we have been thinking about for the past year: Terrariums and Pre-Service Teacher Knowledge

"Bay of New York From Hoboken"
John Poppel Sculps- 1850

The following is a presentation that was given on November 21, 2014. The presentation centered on recent research taking place with a graduate student. 

TITLE: What we have been thinking about for the past year: Terrariums and Pre-Service Teacher Knowledge 

Michele Mann and Anthony Petrosino will be talking about 2 ongoing research projects they have been working on for the past few months. The first is an examination of pre-service teachers use of physical, symbolic, and computational models. In the case of their study, 2-tier terrariums. What are the constraints, affordances, and points of leverage for elementary science pre-service teachers and their students. The second project is an assessment of science content knowledge and process skills of pre-service elementary science teachers (non content majors), pre-service secondary teachers (content majors), and college students in general. Issues of teacher training, general science knowledge and preliminary results will be discussed. 

  Petrosino, Mann Talk (2014)

Minutes before the presentation 

Klein ISD brings science to students in new mobile lab- Houston Chronicle (short interview)

I was interviewed in early November by the Houston Chronicle for a story about a mobile lab delivering STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) for school children in the Klein school district in Texas. While the interview with the reporter lasted about a half hour and covered many topics about education in Texas and across the nation (some to be used for a future article), this story contains only a few sentences of the interview.  -Dr. Petrosino 

By Mihir Zaveri

Bailey DePhilippis, 6, a first grader at Bernshausen Elementary, learns about food items from a chart at the nutrition station of the STEAM Express, Klein ISD's new mobile science and technology lab. The trailer is expected to start visiting each of Klein's 40 schools by the end of the year. Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

Abel Martinez dips his hand into a beaker of water and carefully dabs a drop onto a small, translucent rock he's examining.
"It doesn't soak into the rock, so that means it's not permeable," the 13-year-old declares, eyeing the bead of water.

Martinez, who is in eighth grade at Ulrich Intermediate School in the Klein Independent School District, then slowly focuses the white microscope-camera onto the jagged surface of a piece of fool's gold.

While he is surrounded by science apparatus, he is not in a classroom. Instead, he's testing out a 40-foot-long, 8½-foot-wide trailer that houses Klein ISD's new mobile science and tech lab.
The mobile laboratory - filled with dozens of laptops and touch screens, orange-and-white robots and displays on vitamins, architecture and hurricanes - is expected to begin visiting each of Klein's 40 schools by the end of the year. It's been dubbed the STEAM Express for its emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
Klein already implements the state curriculum, which requires math and science education from K-12, and starting in eighth grade, the district has popular career and technical education programs in computer programming, engineering and agriculture.

But administrators hope the STEAM Express, a play on the STEM acronym, will be a more hands-on, career-focused learning vehicle that inspires more students to pursue STEAM careers.

Aiming younger
"We are finding that we have gaps with our younger children learning about the STEAM careers," said Adam Hile, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. "The STEAM Express is going to allow us to bring those ideas down to the younger kids and hopefully spark an interest when they are younger."
The plan for now is to take the turquoise-and-white trailer to each Klein school and potentially to a local library and other locations in the summer for students who have limited access to materials like those in the lab.
The mobile lab currently focuses on careers such as geology, engineering, meteorology, architecture, health, space exploration and robotics. Each area has its own section inside the trailer, designated by large, white letters. Teachers can decide what they want students to learn about when the trailer visits.
The focus on allocating time and resources to these subjects is positive, said Anthony Petrosino, an education professor at University of Texas at Austin who focuses on STEM learning. But he said the challenge would be maintaining an in-depth, consistent education effort.

Irregular meetings
"They're getting exposure, they certainly will be learning things," he said. "But some of those gains and some of the ability to build on things might be hampered by the fact that maybe they're only meeting once a week or on some irregular time frame."
Three-year-old Zachary McLean, who currently attends the district's pre-kindergarten program, rearranges puzzle pieces with his finger on a touch screen laptop as he sits under a sign that reads "health."
"It says veggies!" McLean exclaimed, as he pieced together the letters in a puzzle about nutrition.
Part of the appeal of the lab, Klein officials said, is that it can adapt to all grade levels and the computer programs, which allow students do everything from design roller coasters to create tornadoes, can be updated.
"I want to be on the cutting edge," said Bill Nebeker, the STEAM Express coordinator who will be taking the mobile lab to each school.
Nebeker said about 30 students can use the lab at a time, with half inside at the various stations and half outside, where a pullout 19-foot awning and a drop-down stage can be set up as a makeshift classroom.
"I just want to excite kids for science," he said. "I just want to excite kids about the possibilities."

Inspired by book bus
The STEAM lab builds off of the district's "Reading Express," a summer reading program run out of a retrofitted school bus that keeps kids, particularly those who might have limited access to books, reading even after the school year ends.
Over the last two years, officials from the district's education foundation raised some $300,000 in individual donations and in-kind donations of wiring, laptops and other technology of about $50,000. On Wednesday, the foundation officially donated the whole lab to the district.
So far, the district is allotting about $50,000 for the lab's operation and maintenance each year, Hile said.
He said the school district will evaluate the effectiveness of the mobile lab, eventually tracking students' paths after school.
"We'll be able to see: 'Do more of our students who graduate from Klein pursue more STEAM careers when they go to college or not?'" Hile said.

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Decentralized thinking and understanding of evolution in K-12 evolution education (Petrosino, Lucero, Mann, 2014)

120 year old Coal Ovens
Dom's Bakery Grand- Hoboken, NJ

The following is an article I wrote along with 2 colleagues that will appear in the peer reviewed journal Evolution: Education and Outreach. The article centers on a number of difficult concepts that must be understood before one can really understand the idea of evolution. To be clear, this article is not about beliefs--- it is about knowledge and understanding. I take no formal position on what a person believes or why (or why not) they believe what they believe. Rather, the rationale behind this line of work is rooted much more in cognition and comprehension of complex phenomena. A previous article on this topic was published by a number of graduate students and myself a few years ago and is entitled "Evolution Education: Seeing the Forest for the Trees and Focusing Our Efforts on the Teaching of Evolution" (McVaugh, Birchfield, Lucero, and Petrosino, 2011).

Some of the initial ideas for both of these papers originated while I was working with teachers to develop a fully inclusive K-12 curriculum in Hoboken, NJ. Others thoughts and ideas came from a series of classes and lectures I gave on the topic from 2010-2013.

  Petrosino, Lucero and Mann (2014)

NARST ACCEPTANCE: Tensions between conceptual and metaconceptual learning with models

The Madison- 13th and Washington St, Hoboken NJ
Circa mid 1970's

NARST (the National Association for Research in Science Teaching) is the premier worldwide organization for improving science teaching and learning through research. Since its inception in 1928, NARST has promoted research in science education and the communication of knowledge generated by the research. The ultimate goal of NARST is to help all learners achieve science literacy. The following is an acceptance letter I received this week to present some of my latest research at the annual NARST meeting. This year it will be held in Chicago, IL. 

Some initial aspects of this work was begun while I was working with teachers in Hoboken, NJ on developing a K-12 inclusive curriculum. Further development of the ideas behind this work came from interactions with Rich Lehrer (Vanderbilt), Michele Mann (U of Texas-Austin), my students and graduate students of my elementary science methods course and children from the Hola Dual Language Charter School in Hoboken, NJ. 

This is the ninth time my research has been accepted to be part of a NARST conference. -Dr. Petrosino 

Dear Anthony,

Congratulations! After a thorough peer review process, the NARST Program Committee has decided to accept your proposal Q-1007211-4189 entitled Tensions between conceptual and metaconceptual learning with models submitted to Strand 1 to be presented as a/an Interactive Poster. For the 2015 NARST Annual International Conference there were approximately 1,100 proposal submissions. Thus, you are invited to the NARST Annual International Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA from April 11 - 14, 2015. For the purpose of obtaining a visa to the USA or travel grants to support funding to attend the conference, please use this letter to verify that your proposal to present at the conference was peer-reviewed and accepted. Full details of the program (and your session) will be available by early-February at the association's website (www.narst.org). More information about the Conference venue will be available in the Spring 2015 E-NARST News.

You will find the comments and feedback from peer reviewers at the NARST Proposal Submission website: http://www.narst.org/abstracts2015 where you can log in and click on your proposal number(s) for your first author submission(s) to view your reviews. You should find these reviews useful in preparing your final paper for presentation at the Conference.

Please note that every first authors of each accepted paper must register for the Conference by 12:00pm (noon) EST on February 12, 2015. You will be able to register electronically using a credit card. Failure to register for the Conference by 12:00pm (noon) EST on February 12, 2015 may result in your submission and paper being deleted from the program.

The deadline for receipt of your voluntarily submitted manuscript for inclusion in the e-version of the program is 12:00pm (noon) EST February 19, 2015. Please note your submission is not reviewed or edited in any way. Your submission is voluntary. The link for the manuscript will only be live during the conference and for a period of up to 7 days prior to and following the conference. Beginning with the 2015 conference NARST will no longer produce the Conference CD. Directions for the submission of your manuscript for the e-version will be available on the conference page of the NARST website.

Therefore, please put these 2015 dates in your calendar:

• Early-February: Notification of your specific presentation date and time.
• February 12 (12:00pm EST): Conference pre-registration for every first author.
• February 19 (12:00pm EST): Voluntary submission of manuscript for e-version of program.
• April 11 - 14: NARST 2015 Annual International Conference in Chicago, IL.

If you have any questions about the proposal review process or conference scheduling please contact Dr. XXXXX.
Questions about registration, the conference venue, and submitting manuscripts for the e-version of the program should be directed to the NARST management company (info@narst.org).

Once again, congratulations on a successful NARST 2015 proposal. We look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Sincerely,
NARST 2014-15 Program Committee

Talk Title: From Physical to Computational Models- The Role of Representation, Experimentation, and Content Knowledge in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Graduate student Michele Mann and Professor Anthony Petrosino will be talking about 2 ongoing research projects they have been working on for the past few months. The first is an examination of pre-service teachers use of physical, diagrammatic, and computational models of the same phenomena. In this case an examination of the 2-teir terrarium activity. What are the constraints, affordances, and points of leverage for elementary science pre-service teachers and their students? 

The second project is an assessment of science content knowledge and process skills of pre-service elementary science teachers (non content majors), pre-service secondary teachers (content majors), and college students in general. Issues of teacher training, general science knowledge and preliminary research results will be discussed. 

Dr. Petrosino and Michele Mann we speak for approximately 40 minutes with 20 minutes allocated for questions and answers. Dr. Petrosino also has a talk scheduled for the spring where he will be presenting data on the critical importance of district and school level leadership and the tenuous nature of district level reform. 

Talk 2

U.S. to Focus on Equity in Assigning of Teachers

Veteran's Day 2014- Hoboken, NJ 

New York Times ^ | November 10, 2014 | MOTOKO RICH 

Posted on November 11, 2014 7:37:40 AM CST by reaganaut1

The Obama administration is directing states to show how they will ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality teachers, with a sharp focus on schools with a high proportion of the poor and racial minorities. 

In a letter to state superintendents released Monday, Deborah S. Delisle, an assistant secretary at the Department of Education, said states must develop plans by next June that make sure that public schools comply with existing federal law requiring that “poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers.” 

States last submitted plans to address such inequities in 2006, but data shows that large disparities persist. 

“It is important to remind our states that one step in front of the other is the way to begin to deliver for all our students,” said Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, in a conference call with reporters. “We are all dismayed by the lack of compliance and lack of satisfaction and delivery on this point.” 

The Education Department will send each state data collected by the department’s Office for Civil Rights showing rates of teacher experience, certification, absenteeism and salary by school as well as student access to taxpayer-funded preschool and advanced courses in math and science. 

The administration is also urging states to look at teacher evaluations to determine whether those who receive lower ratings are disproportionately assigned to schools with high proportions of racial minorities and students in poverty. 

But the only requirement of states is that they ensure that teachers are equitably distributed based on experience and credentials. 

Education advocates said such measures could limit improvements in the quality of instruction in struggling schools.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

Hoboken Board of Education Meeting- November 11, 2014

The following in the agenda for the Hoboken Board of Education Meeting for November 11, 2014.

The remainder of regularly scheduled Board Meetings for 2014 will now be held in the Demarest School (Auditorium), 158 Fourth Street, Hoboken, NJ and will begin at 7:00 PM. Formal action will be taken at each meeting.

  Hoboken Borad of Education Agenda Nov 2014

Hoboken Board of Education Results of November 2014 - A Deeper Look at the Numbers

Election Day 2014
Hoboken, NJ 

For a summary of the 2014 Hoboken Board of Education results, please refer to either the Jersey Journal or the Hoboken Reporter. Each newspaper had fairly good coverage of the issues at stake and the results. There are also a number of Hoboken based blogs that have provided coverage on the election.

You may also wish to look up the final vote results for yourself by pointing your browser to the Office of the County Clerk for Hudson County.

Sharon L. Angley and Monica Stromwall, members of the "Parents for Progress" slate, won two of the three available seats and incumbent Peter Biancamano, a member of the "Education of All Children" candidate and the highest vote getter, won a third seat. In all, eight candidates competed for three, three-year spots on the Hoboken Board of Education. The candidates ran under three slates: Parents for Change, Parents for Progress, and Education for All Children. 

Here are the results of the election using a color coding scheme to represent the various tickets that ran for the Board*: 

Table 1

Brian Murray, Patricia Waiters and Lynn Danzker ran as "Parents for Change"

Antonio Gray, Sharyn Angley, and Monica Stromwell ran as "Parents for Progress" 

Peter Biancamano and Frances Rhodes Kearns ran as "Education for All Children" 

Table 1 indicates that "Parents for Change" candidates received an average of 1907 votes per candidate; "Parents for Progress" candidates received an average of 2167 votes per candidate; and "Education for All Children" received an average of 2279 votes per candidate.

Table 1 also shows how each candidate's individual vote total compared to the average for the members of THEIR particular ticket. For instance, "Parents for Change" candidate Brian Murray (1H) received a total of 2097 votes while the average vote for a "Parents for Change" candidate was 1907, leaving a +190 vote count from the average for Candidate Murray. 

Table 2 

Table 2 shows the general percentage of total votes that each ticket received. Approximately 16,802 individual candidate votes were cast in the Hoboken Board of Education election indicating roughly 5600 voters (assumption: each voter who voted in the BOE election voted for 3 candidates). 

"Education for All"'s two candidates received about 27% of the votes 

"Parents for Change"'s three candidates received about 34% of the votes 

"Parents for Progress"'s three candidates received about 39% of the votes

Table 3 

In statistics and probability theory, the standard deviation (SD) measures the amount of variation or dispersion from the average. A low standard deviation indicates the data points tend to be very close to the mean (or "expected value"); a high high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. 

Table 3 shows that the "Parents for Progress" candidates experienced fairly low variability- meaning if a voter voted for one member of "Parents for Progress", they voted for all three. When voters deviated from voting for the entire ticket, evidence seems to indicate they voted for someone other than Antonio Gray (-87 votes from average, see Table 1). 

Table 3 also shows that the "Parents for Change" candidates experienced low to moderate variability- meaning if a voter voted for one member of "Parents for Change", they probably voted for all three. When voters deviated from voting for the entire ticket, evidence seems to indicate they voted for someone other than Lynn Danzker (-289 votes from average, see Table 1).

Finally, Table 3 indicates that the "Education for All Children" candidates experienced moderate variability. However the story seems to be a little more complicated with "Education for All Children." The fairly high variability likely came from Peter Biancamano (+243 votes from average, see Table 1 and Table 4) picking up votes from both "Parents for Change" and "Parents for Progress" voters. If a voter voted for one member of "Education for All Children", they likely voted for both but when an "Education for All" candidate received a vote from a non-"Education for All" voter, it likely came from a "Parents for Change" voter with some additional voters being "Parents for Progress" voters.

Table 4- Click to enlarge

Table 4 groups the candidates by ticket via a color coded bar graph. The standard deviation for the votes received by all 8 candidates was 253.5 and the average vote count for each candidate was 2097 (see Table 5).  

Table 5

Further analysis indicates just how decisive Biancamano's victory was on Election Day. Table 6  is a table of candidates ranked by standard deviation units (calculated by subtracting the average vote total for the group from the individual candidate's vote total and then dividing by the standard deviation of votes for all candidates). In this election, a standard deviation unit was approximately 253 votes. Table 7 is a graphical representation of candidates color coded by slate on standard deviation units to help inform and model a normal distribution curve (Table 8).

Table 6

Table 7- Click to Enlarge

Table 8 (below) shows the fairly close grouping of Murray (1H), Waiters (6H),  Rhodes-Kearns (8H), Gray (2H), Angley (3H), and Stromwell (5H). The two obvious outliers from the candidate pool were Biancamano (4H) and Danzker (7H)- especially easy to see when plotted on a normal distribution curve (see Table 1 for triangulation of this conjecture with supporting data from Table 6, Table 7, and Table 8).

Table 8- Click to Enlarge 

Speculation and questions remain about this election. Would results have been different if there was a two slate race instead of three? Would results have been different if "Education for All Children" had a third candidate? Is "Parents for Change" a superficial re-branding of the toxic and failed Kids First group (who still hold a board majority) or will "Parents for Change" emerge as a legitimate force for unity, reform, and quality? Will this election solidify divisions or force compromise among different political factions in town? For the time being, we will leave the speculation and punditry for others to explore.

A Board of Education member is an unpaid elected official with no health or retirement benefits. Each candidate is to be  acknowledged for their willingness to volunteer their time in order to serve the community. The November 2014 Board of Education election will be remembered for being a generally positive campaign where "Parents for Change", "Parents for Progress", and "Education for All Children" articulated primarily pro-active visions and "positive" messaging for moving forward in the school district and in healing certain fractures in the community. Congratulations to all. 

"Parents for Change"

"Parents for Progress"

"Education for All Children"

* I would like to thank a number of regular readers for suggesting some helpful ideas for reframing some of the tables and data analysis to my original post.