Hoboken dual language charter school to include fourth grade students after receiving $2,500 grant

Here is a wonderful article on the recent news that the Hola Dual Language Charter School will be expanding to the 4th Grade for the 2012-2013 academic school year. The article was written by the Jersey Journal correspondent Travis Fedschun and was published online on March 8, 2012. -Dr. Petrosino.

A Hoboken charter school will be expanding to include fourth-grade students next year with some help from the Provident Bank Foundation.

The Hoboken dual language charter school, HoLa, will expand after being awarded a $2,500 grant from the foundation to support the construction of two new fourth-grade classrooms.

“The Provident Bank Foundation is thrilled to support the expansion of such a unique and multicultural school. We’re excited to help the school continue to grow and increase enrollment,” said Kendall Warsaw, executive director of the Provident Bank Foundation in a statement.

The classrooms are slated to open for the 2012-2013 school year at the school, which serves currently teaches students in kindergarden through third grade in a Spanish-English dual language curriculum.

“All of the support from the Provident Bank Foundation has been vital in helping HoLa accommodate its growing needs, and has allowed our organization to set the groundwork for two exciting and very essential, new classrooms,” said Jennifer Sargent, president of the Board of Trustees at HoLa in a release.

The school, located at 123 Jefferson St., opened in 2010 with grades kindergarden through second grade and has since expanded its curriculum each year to include another grade level until the organization reaches the goal of teaching students in kindergarden through fifth grade classes.

© 2012 NJ.com. All rights reserved.

Picture: A HoLa teacher begins small group work with her kindergarteners. (credit: Jersey Journal)

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (SCIENCE journal)

Many of the regular readers of this blog will recall the efforts that were made to begin a dual language program in the Hoboken Public Schools in 2009. While the initiative had many supporters at the time, it was voted down by the Hoboken Board of Education in a close vote. The program is now a charter school in Hoboken and enjoying great success and popularity.

Below is a wonderful article summarizing the research that shows the scientifically proven value of being bilingual. These are not new findings, the research was known and presented to the Hoboken Board of Education at the time they voted down the dual language program in Hoboken, but it summarizes the work very well.

Dual language programs and charter schools are now sweeping the country. Each year more and more are being added with the second language being spanish, french, italian, chinese, etc...

-Dr. Petrosino

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.

In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.

The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).

In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.

Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.

Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee is a staff writer at Science.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 25, 2012

The Gray Matter column on bilingualism last Sunday misspelled the name of a university in Spain. It is Pompeu Fabra, not Pompea Fabra.

Picture: Harriet Russell (NY Times)

Teachers Think White Females Lag Behind in Math, University of Texas at Austin Study Finds

The following research was conducted under the leadership of my colleague Dr. Catherine Riegle-Crumb. The work is thought provoking and has many implications for secondary STEM instruction. -Dr. Petrosino

AUSTIN, Texas — High school math teachers tend to rate white female students’ math abilities lower than those of their white male peers, even when their grades and test scores are comparable, according to a University of Texas at Austin study.

Dr. Catherine Riegle-Crumb and sociology doctoral student Melissa Humphries conducted the study using nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) of 2002. The ELS followed a cohort of about 15,000 students from their sophomore year in high school through their post-secondary education and into the work force.

“If the math bias against females is present in elementary school, which past research shows it is, and continues through high school and then college, then it’s much less likely that you will find women pursuing math-related high-status occupations in science and technology,” said Riegle-Crumb, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and a faculty research associate at the Population Research Center in the College of Liberal Arts. “If you perceive the message ‘You’re just not quite as good at math as the boys are’ often enough, you may start to believe it.”

Teachers’ perceptions of students’ math abilities was one portion of the data gathered by the ELS. The teachers were asked to rate students on whether the math class in which the students were enrolled fit their abilities, was too easy for them or was too difficult for them.

“The bias teachers revealed against white female students may very well be something they are not consciously aware of, and it’s usually subtle,” said Riegle-Crumb, “but it’s definitely present, per our research findings.”

Previous research documented that racial bias persists and is pervasive. But this study is the first to reveal, at the high school level, that white female students are deemed less capable in math when measured against white males whose academic performance is comparable. Riegle-Crumb said it’s particularly disturbing that these teacher perceptions manifest at a time when most students are making decisions about post-secondary education and careers.

According to Riegle-Crumb, the majority of teachers rated both male and female minorities’ math abilities lower when their test scores and grades were indeed low, which does not constitute “bias” because there is reasonable data to support that evaluation. This does not suggest that minorities are free from substantial negative stereotyping, which can affect their academic and career aspirations and achievement.

“It’s important to keep in mind that even though the math bias against females in any one classroom may be small, taken over a lifetime and with thousands of accumulated experiences, it can influence one’s identity as well as the perceptions of others,” said Riegle-Crumb.

The study findings will be published in the April 2012 issue of the journal Gender & Society.

Note: The University of Texas at Austin Office of University Communications is providing the following news release in the form of text. The article also will be posted in the "News Releases" section of the university's Web site at http://www.utexas.edu/news.

Girls Are Smarter Than Boys, So What Goes Wrong In Math And Science? [Infographic]

Created by: Engineering Degree

Project Based Units from Our UTeach PBI Class- Spring/Fall 2010

Project-based instruction (PBI) engages learners in exploring authentic, important, and meaningful questions of real concern to students. Through a dynamic process of investigation and collaboration and using the same processes and technologies that real scientists, applied mathematicians and engineers use, students work in teams to formulate questions, make predictions, design investigations, collect and analyze data, make products and share ideas. Students learn fundamental science and mathematical concepts and principles that they apply to their daily lives. Project-based instruction helps all students regardless of culture, race, socioeconomic status or gender engage in learning.

I'm always being asked to present examples of student work in the PBI units they generate. Here are a number of nice examples from the Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 semesters. Enjoy!

Algebra Units

Biology Units

Chemistry Units

Geometry Units

Middle School Math & Science Units

Physics Units

Homepage

Thanks to colleagues Dr. Cesar Delgado, Sara Hawkins, and Tara Craig

Picture: Texas Bluebonnets, March 31, 2012

Texas Superintendent John Kuhn: Texans Rebel Against Testing

The following article was written by Anthony Cody. Cody spent 24 years working in the Oakland, CA public school, 18 of them as a science teaching. He now leads workshops on project based learning. The full text of this article can be found at Education Week and by clicking HERE.

Texas has become a hotspot of rebellion against standardized testing. Earlier this year, state education commissioner Robert Scott compared test publishers to the military industrial complex. More than 100 school districts have passed a resolution saying standardized testing is "strangling" their schools. And on Saturday, several thousand Texans gathered at the state capitol in Austin for the Save Texas Schools rally. One of the speakers was a man we first heard at a similar protest more than a year ago, Superintendent John Kuhn.

Here is what Superintendent Kuhn had to say. (Click here to see VIDEO of Kuhn's Speech)

When a government fails to safeguard the development of its most vulnerable children and fails to ensure the advancement of their well-being; When the Constitution no longer guides its leaders and the people must sue the state to force it to honor its promises; When moderation is lost by those in power alongside honest dealing and the greater good, then that government must be held accountable in the court of public opinion. A statement of our just grievances is in order. This government has failed to establish an equitable system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources; and more shameful yet, possessed of the wise words of our fathers who recorded that "a people must be educated" for liberty to survive. This government has allowed state testing to become a perversion, growing like Johnson grass through the garden of learning and choking to death all knowledge that isn't on the test, killing ancient wisdom like debate, logic, and ethics--deep human learning that once provided this state a renewable crop of leaders who knew courage instead of expedience, truth instead of spin, and personal risk for the public good instead of personal enrichment and reelection at all costs. This government has eroded the authority of locally-elected school boards to make decisions about everything from school calendars to curriculum, replacing local control with Austin control and local blame. They have no confidence in local trustees or the voters who put them in office.

This government has found the money to pay the Pearson Corporation $500 million for a test while cutting $5 billion from the fund that pays for teacher salaries. This government has financed never-ending tax breaks for incredibly wealthy businesses by wringing our classrooms like a washcloth. This government has mandated so much remediation in tested subjects that vocational training won't fit into student schedules; this government has imperiously decided that all children are college bound whether they like it or not. It has encouraged the proliferation of tax-funded for-profit schools that kick out and keep out the students who are hardest to teach, because when it's about profit, it's not about kids. This government's representatives have repeatedly lied to the voters, shamelessly calling a $5 billion cut an increase. This government has chosen to fund favored schoolchildren at two and three times the rate allocated for less favored children, whose only offense is living in the wrong Texas zip codes; It has created a strict accountability system for teachers while NOT developing any system whatsoever to illuminate the progress of politicians in remediating out-of-school factors that devastate student test scores; factors like parental unemployment go unmeasured, racial income disparities--that's a gap no one tries to close--child homelessness is irrelevant, crime and incarceration rates for fathers are too unimportant to track, rates of drug use and child abuse and preventable illness do not matter because those are factors that lay squarely within the politicians' realm of responsibility, and they just keep getting worse.

But they don't want to talk about the gaps in their data; they want to decry the status quo in classrooms and preserve the status quo in Austin. If the teacher is the quarterback, Congress is the offensive line. Their performance impacts our performance, but they keep letting us get sacked by poverty, broken homes, student mobility, hunger, health care. And they just say "Oops" as that linebacker blows by them and buries his facemask in our chest. Then we get back to the huddle and they say, "You gotta complete your passes." We're aware of that. Make your blocks, legislators. Give us time to stand in the pocket and throw good passes. Do your job. It doesn't take a great quarterback rating to win games; it takes a team effort. Have the elected officials in Austin made adequate yearly progress? Nobody knows, because they keep their achievement gaps swept safely under a rug so they can't be criticized, so they can't be held accountable for decades of zero progress. The human cost of their failures is staggering, but our politicians have seen fit to create an accountability system that holds least accountable those with the most power and influence.

This government has strangled true learning at the local level because of its addiction to bureaucratic coercion. Tragically, this government has lost sight of the exceptionalism of our state's character and has repeatedly lamented the quality of our students based on nothing but the comparison of their test scores to those of students in Europe and Asia, as if greatness doesn't exist outside of a standardized test; it has forgotten that the tests that make Texans great have never been taken with pencil and paper but rather were tests of bone and spirit taken at places like the Alamo and San Jacinto. Inside the Apollo capsule and on foreign shores, our kids have never failed the tests that matter. Our kids have passed countless tests of courage and ingenuity, tests of mettle and character and resilience. This government has neglected the classics and has called on our children to become technicians instead of humans, regurgitators of math and science facts, who produce well-rounded bubbles in place of well-rounded souls; it has sought to make our children quantifiable shells of people, their guiding light of curiosity snuffed out by an idiot's opinion of what constitutes a human education. These and other grievances were patiently borne by the teachers of Texas, until they reached that point at which patience is no longer a virtue. We appealed to our government last spring in this very spot, called upon those in power to encourage and support the teachers who day by day struggle to educate the poorest children in the most neglected corners of our state. Yet they responded to our entreaties with new condemnations of the work we do. Our appeals have been made in vain.

We are forced to the melancholy conclusion that this government favors business interests that want a profit-based education system that would enrich investors, rather than a publicly-owned system that enriches our children. You can keep your for-profit schools. I want a locally-elected school board that answers to me, to parents and local taxpayers, not to shareholders. I want a quality public education for ALL Texas children. I want adequate and equitable funding, so that families in every part of Texas can count on the consistent quality of our public school system like we count on the consistent quality of our interstate highway system, because we don't want to wreck our children any more than we want to wreck our cars. Texas officials, you build your hateful machine that blames teachers for the failures of politicians; we'll still be here teaching when your engine of shame is laid upon the scrapheap of history. For now, we'll bravely take these lashes you give because we know that--no matter what you say--the only crime of the public school teacher in 2012 is his or her willingness to embrace and teach broken children. If that's a crime, then find us guilty. If caring for the least of these makes us unacceptable, then bring on your label gun. We're not afraid.

Those interested in more about Superintendent Kuhn, please look at this link with an op ed he wrote about accountability: CLICK HERE.

Hoboken Board of Education Meeting- Notice and Agenda:- March, 2012

HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION PUBLIC MEETING

DATE: Tuesday, March 27, 2012

TIME: 7:00 pm

LOCATION: Hoboken Board of Education Meeting Room

1115 Clinton Street Hoboken, NJ 07030

AGENDA

1. Budget Hearing

2. Report of School Superintendent

3. Report of School Business Administrator

4. Board President Report and Board Committee Reports

5. Approval of School Superintendent Agenda and Interim School Business Administrator Agenda

Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held by the Board of Education of the City of Hoboken in the County of Hudson and the State of New Jersey on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, at 7:00 pm in the Board meeting room located at 1115 Clinton Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, with respect to a budget which has been tentatively adopted by the Board of Education of the School District of the City of Hoboken in the County of Hudson and the State of New Jersey for the school year beginning July 1, 2012 and ending June 30, 2013 and the amount of money appropriated for the operation and maintenance of the public schools of said school district for the school year and with respect to various items and purposes for which the same is to be appropriated.

The school district has proposed programs and services in addition to the Core Curriculum Content Standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Information on this budget and the programs and services it provides is available from your local district.

The said budget will be on file and open to the public in the office of the Secretary of the Board of Education in the Administration Building, 1115 Clinton Street, Hoboken, New Jersey from the date hereto until the holding of said Public Hearing. The available times are from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Published by the order of the Board of Education of the School District of the City of Hoboken.

Any matters relating to the above items that may come before the Board. Please be advised that the Board may be required to go into closed executive session during this meeting to discuss litigation, negotiations and personnel items. Action may be taken on all agenda items.

Published by order of the Board of Education of the School District of the City of Hoboken

William Takacs

Board Secretary

March 27 2012 BOE Stated Session Agenda

Momentum Builds for Dual-Language Learning- Education Week article by Lesli A. Maxwel

Dual-Language programs are becoming increasingly popular around the country as this recent article in Education Week points out. Recall, during my time in the Hoboken School District we wanted to bring a dual language program into the public schools but the Board of Education was against the idea by a close vote . In the interim, the program applied for and received a Charter from the State of New Jersey and the school is currently flourishing. The ignorance and emotional response that we experienced in Hoboken is not uncommon-- however, more thoughtful and reflective Boards are now very open to the idea of dual language immersion programs. Clearly, its time has come. -Dr. Petrosino


By Lesli A. Maxwell
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org
San Jose, Calif.

In a preschool class at Gardner Academy, a public elementary school near downtown San Jose, teacher Rosemary Zavala sketched a tree as she fired off questions about what plants need to grow. "¿Qué necesitan las plantas?" she asked her 4-year-old charges in Spanish. "Las flores toman agua" was the exuberant answer from one girl, who said that flowers drink water. A boy answered in English: "I saw a tree in my yard." The next day, Ms. Zavala's questions about plants would continue—but in English.

This classroom, with its steady stream of lively, vocabulary-laden conversations in Spanish and in English, is what many educators and advocates hope represents the future of language instruction in the United States for both English-language learners and native English-speakers.

The numbers of dual-language-immersion programs like this one have been steadily growing in public schools over the past decade or so, rising to more than 2,000 in 2011-12, according to estimates from national experts.

That growth has come even as the numbers of transitional-bilingual-education programs shrank in the aftermath of heated, politically charged ballot initiatives pushing English immersion in states like Arizona, Massachusetts, and here in California.

Experts say the interest in dual-language programs now is driven by an increased demand for bilingual and biliterate workers and by educators who see positive impacts on academic achievement for both English-learners and students already fluent in English.
In California—home to more than 1 million ELL students and some of the fiercest battles over bilingual education—the earlier controversies are showing signs of ebbing.

While the state's Proposition 227 ballot initiative, approved by voters in 1998, pushed districts to replace many bilingual education programs with English-immersion for English-learners, the state is now taking steps to encourage bilingualism for all students: Graduating seniors can earn a "seal of biliteracy" on their high school transcripts and diplomas, which signifies they have reached fluency in English and a second language. Last year, 6,000 graduates in the state earned the seal.

"The momentum behind these programs is really amazing," said Virginia P. Collier, a professor emeritus of education at George Mason University, in Virginia, who has studied dual-language programs extensively.

"And we are not talking about a remedial, separate program for English-learners or foreign-language programs just for students with picky parents," she said. "These are now mainstream programs where we’re seeing a lot of integration of native speakers of the second language with students who are native English-speakers."

Types of Programs
Part of the 33,000-student San Jose Unified School District, Gardner Academy offers a two-way immersion program, in which native speakers of English and native speakers of a second language—usually Spanish—learn both languages in the same classroom. Generally, to be considered a two-way program, at least one-third of the students must be native speakers of the second language.

Many of Ms. Zavala's 4-year-olds will continue to receive at least half their instruction in Spanish as they move into kindergarten, 1st grade, and beyond. The goal is to establish strong literacy skills in English and Spanish in the early grades, and to produce fully bilingual, biliterate students by the end of elementary school. Because of the state’s Proposition 227 law, parents must "opt" for their children to enroll in the two-way program.

In one-way immersion, another form of dual-language learning, either native English-speakers or native speakers of the second language make up all or most of the students enrolled and instruction takes place in two languages.

First grade students in Gardner Academy's two-way, dual-language program in San Jose, Calif., take part in a classroom exercise. Even though California's Proposition 227 initiative effectively ended bilingual education in that state more than a decade ago, public dual-language programs are proving to be more politically palatable. The goal at Gardner is for both native English speakers and speakers of a second language to be fully biliterate and bilingual by the time they leave elementary school.

The number of one-way and two-way programs is roughly equal, according to Leonides Gómez, an education professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, who developed a two-way-immersion model that is widely used in the state’s public schools.
There are variations in how dual-language programs work, but all of them share a few hallmark features.

At least half the instructional time is spent in the second language, although in the early grades, it may take up as much as 90 percent. There must also be distinct separation of the two languages, unlike in transitional bilingual education, in which teachers and students alike mix their use of both languages.

Spanish is by far the most prevalent second language taught in dual programs, followed by Mandarin Chinese and French, according to national language experts.
For English-language learners, the dual-immersion experience is dramatically different from that in most other bilingual education programs, in which teachers use the native language to help teach English with the goal of moving students into regular classes as quickly as possible, said Mr. Gómez, who serves on the board of the National Association for Bilingual Education, or NABE.

"The goal isn’t to run away from one language or another, but to really educate the child in both and to use the native language as a resource and an asset," said Mr. Gómez. "Content is content, and skills are skills. When you learn both in two or more languages, it moves you to a different level of comprehension, capacity, and brain elasticity."

Role of Motivation
Research examining the effects of dual-language programs has shown some promising results for years, although there is not consensus that it’s the best method for teaching English-language learners. One problem with discerning the effect of dual-language methods is determining how much self-selection is a factor. All such programs are programs of choice, with students and their families having the motivation to opt for the dual-language route.
Another factor is the great variability among dual-language programs.

"I think many of the new programs aren't able to achieve the ideal conditions for them to truly work, especially for English-learners," said Don Soifer, the executive vice president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va., that generally supports English immersion for the teaching of English-learners.

For starters, Mr. Soifer said, finding teachers is a major challenge because they need strong skills in two languages, as well as subject-matter competence. He said it’s also necessary for two-way programs to have an even balance of native English-speakers, a feature that he says is difficult to achieve in some districts.

Still, several studies in recent years have demonstrated that ELL students and other frequently low-performing groups, such as African-American students, do well in dual-language programs.
Ms. Collier and her research partner, Wayne P. Thomas, found in a 2002 study that ELLs in dual-language programs were able to close the achievement gap with their native English-speaking peers, and that the programs achieved important intangible goals, such as increased parental involvement. The study examined 20 years of data on ELLs in 15 states who were enrolled in dual-language, transitional-bilingual-education, and English-only programs.

North Carolina Results
Ms. Collier and Mr. Thomas are also conducting an ongoing study of students in two-way dual-language programs, most of them in Spanish and English, in North Carolina. The researchers have found so far that gaps in reading and math achievement between English-learners enrolled in dual-language classes and their white peers who are native English-speakers are smaller than gaps between ELLs who are not in such classes and white students.

The data are also showing that English-speaking African-American students who are in dual-language programs are outscoring black peers who are in non-dual classrooms, Ms. Collier said.
Texas has more dual-language immersion programs than any other state—with between 700 and 800 of them in schools—including some of the most mature, according to several experts.
One district in the state's Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border—the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District—is likely to become the nation's first to have dual-language programs in all its schools, including middle and high school, Mr. Gómez said. In June, the fourth cohort of students who have been in dual language since kindergarten will graduate from the district’s four high schools.

In Utah, a statewide dual-language-immersion initiative funded through the legislature—the first such broad-scale effort in the United States, according to experts—is now in its third year, said Gregg Roberts, a specialist in world languages and dual-language immersion for the state office of education.

By next fall, public elementary schools across Utah will offer 80 programs under the state initiative, with roughly 15,000 students enrolled in Spanish, Mandarin, French, and Portuguese. The goal is to have 30,000 students enrolled in 100 programs by 2014, Mr. Roberts said.
"Utah is a small state and, for our future economic development and the national security of our country, we have to educate students who are multilingual," he said. "There is broad agreement in our state about that. It's not a red or a blue issue here."

Many of Utah's programs so far are two-way Spanish-English immersion, drawing on the state's growing Latino immigrant community, said Myriam Met, an expert on immersion programs who is working closely with Utah officials on the initiative.

But the most in-demand programs in Utah are Mandarin. Ms. Met said there were fewer than 10 Chinese immersion programs in the nation in 2000. The current estimate stands at 75 Chinese programs, and by next fall, roughly a quarter of those will be in Utah, she said.

San Francisco's Approach
Some of the nation’s oldest Chinese programs are offered in the 56,000-student San Francisco public schools.
Most students start in one of the city's five elementary schools, where they split instructional time between English and Cantonese or English and Mandarin. Eventually, many end up at Abraham Lincoln High School, where a mix of native Chinese-speakers and students who have been in the immersion program since the early grades take advanced Chinese-language courses, in addition to at least two content-area courses each year in Cantonese.

Amber Sevilla, a 14-year-old freshman in the Chinese-immersion program at Lincoln, is already fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She has been in Chinese immersion since kindergarten and learned some Chinese at home from her grandmother. Through middle school, nearly all of her instruction was conducted in Chinese, including math. Currently, she is taking health education and college and career education in Chinese.

"I'm excited that I can count on being bilingual and biliterate as I go to college, and I know it's going to be an advantage for me even though I don't know yet what I want to do for my career," said Ms. Sevilla. "It’s hard work, but it’s worth it."

Like nearly all her classmates in the immersion program, Ms. Sevilla is on track to earn California's new state seal of biliteracy.

Rosa Molina, the executive director of Two-Way CABE, an advocacy group for dual-language programs that is an arm of the California Association for Bilingual Education, said students like Ms. Sevilla benefit in muliple ways.

"They preserve their primary language or their heritage language, they develop a broader worldview that they take into college and the work world, and they gain huge advantages in their cognitive development that translates into flexibility in their thinking and the ability to successfully tackle really rigorous coursework," Ms. Molina said.

Advocates for English-learners emphasize the importance of expanding programs that are truly two-way and fully accessible to ELLs. Laurie Olsen, a national expert on English-learners who designed the instructional model in use at the Gardner Academy in San Jose, cautions against allowing programs to become dominated by middle- and upper-income students whose parents want them to learn a second language. If that happens, she said, one of the most promising approaches to closing the achievement gap between English-learners and fluent English-speakers will be squandered.

"We know that English-learners who develop proficiency in their home language do better in English and in accessing academic content," she said. "Yet we still live in a world where the belief is wide that English should be enough."

PICTURE: Spring comes to First Street, Hoboken, NJ

F is for Failure: Why America's Education Isn't Worth the Money

The following is a draft of a new graphic by a colleague of mine, Peter Kim, on the Worth of Education in the United States. If you have comments, please send them to me at: ajpetrosino@mail.utexas.edu or directly to Peter Kim at thinkpeterkim@gmail.com.






Via: OnlineEducation.net

A Challenge to Make Science Crystal Clear-What is a flame?

What is the Flame Challenge?

It’s a contest. It’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to have fun, share your love of science, and be judged by a panel of 11-year-olds.

We’re asking scientists to answer the question – “What is a flame?” – in a way that an 11-year-old would find intelligible and maybe even fun.

Why did Alan Alda start this contest?

As a curious 11-year-old, Alan Alda asked his teacher, “What is a flame?” She replied: “It’s oxidation.” Alda went on to win fame as an actor and writer, became an advocate for clear communication of science, and helped found the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. He never stopped being curious, and he never forgot how disappointing that non-answer answer was.

So when he was invited to contribute a guest editorial to the journalScience, he wrote about why we need scientists to communicate clearly and vividly with the public. And he issued the Flame Challenge:

I’d like to try a playful experiment. Would you be willing to have a go at writing your own explanation of what a flame is—one that an 11-year-old would find intelligible, maybe even fun? The Center for Communicating Science is looking for new ways to light up people’s minds with science, and you might point the way. We’ll try out the entries on real 11-year-olds and see which work best. . . .

So here I am—I’m 11 years old and looking up at you with the wide eyes of curiosity. What is a flame? What’s going on in there? What will you tell me?

To read the full article from Science, click here.

How can schools get involved?

We are looking for schools to provide panels of 11-year-olds to judge the entries. To learn how to get involved, click here.

We also are collecting questions from 11-year-olds to use in the next round of the Flame Challenge. To send questions, email us at CommunicatingScience@stonybrook.edu. Please include the name, email and phone number of a parent, guardian or teacher.

What is the Center for Communicating Science?

The Center for Communicating Science, which is running this contest, is a multidisciplinary center based in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University in New York. The Center is dedicated to helping current and future scientists learn to communicate clearly and vividly with the public. We give workshops and presentations for scientists at universities, laboratories and meetings around the country. At Stony Brook, the Center has developed a series of innovative Communicating Science courses being taken for credit by master’s and PhD students from more than a dozen science disciplines.

Alan Alda is a founding member of the Center and a Visiting Professor in the School of Journalism. He is pioneering the idea of “Improvisation for Scientists,” using improvisational theater exercises to help scientists be more direct and responsive in talking about their work. In addition, the Center gives courses and workshops in Distilling Your Message (speaking clearly and compellingly about complex science without “dumbing it down”); Writing about Science for the Public; Using Digital Media; Preparing to Speak (dealing with stage fright) and other topics. For more on the Center, please go towww.CenterforCommunicatingScience.org.

Read more about the Flame Challenge in an article published in the NY Times-- CLICK HERE.

HHS Celebrates 50 Years

Hoboken High School will celebrate its’ 50th Anniversary this year. The planning for the event this spring spawned the excitement and enthusiasm of a small group of teachers, many of which are graduates of the high school. As the planning of the milestone began one thing was agreed upon by all, the celebration could not be confined to one day. The tradition of a community united through their school and the pride in its’ traditions needed expression through many venues over the better part of 2012.

One does not have to look far to find alumni of the school, as a majority of the employees of the district attended Hoboken High as well as most of the parents of our current student body. As word continues to spread of the landmark date, alumni from every decade continue to come forward wanting to share in the celebration.

If you or someone you know would like to take part in the festivities please contact Fran Cohen Class of 1972, at frances.cohen@hoboken.k12.nj.us

Public Notice: Hoboken Board of Education Meeting- February 14, 2012: Changing Voting Dates? Teacher Contracts? Introduction of 2012-2013 Budget?

This month's Hoboken Board of Education meeting contains a 56 page slated agenda (see below) as well as a very important decision by the Board concerning the Board of Education elections and budget approval process. Basically, the decision is whether to move the Board of Education elections to November or to let them remain in April. This has become a very debated issue in Hoboken and around the State of New Jersey over the past few weeks. There is also an outside chance that aspects of the teacher's collective bargaining contract may be presented or discussed.

Reasons against making the change included:

a) The money saved, approximately $50,000, would only be saved once every four years. Is saving $12,500 a year really that significant?

b) From all data presented it seemed that more people come out to November elections when higher-level people were being elected.

But the data also show that there is a wide disparity in participation between the top names on the ballet and those lower. Thus the person at the top of the ballot may get 50% of the registered voters, but the person at the bottom of the ballot may only get 35% of the registered voters.

Thus, even if a May election gets only 25% of the registered voters, a change to November might not increase the participation to 50% (or whatever), but may only get participation increased from 25% to 35%. Some data even show a participation of LESS with a November election.

c) It will cost more for candidates to run. It will cost candidates to become more visible. Take, for example, municipal elections being held in a Presidential year. There will be a huge amount of discussion and publicity, articles, columns, blogs, meetings and discussions. About the President. This will make it much harder for the critical issues that face Montclair to get the attention those issues deserve.

If it costs more to run as a Municipal candidate, fewer will run. And with people contributing to National campaigns, fewer dollars will be available for the local candidates.

d) There is no actual data guiding us. We don’t know if this change will work.

e) Having more voters turn out does not imply that more “informed” voters will vote. It is reasonable to assume that anyone putting in the effort to come and vote during a Municipal only election will be familiar with the Municipal candidates and the issues. During a national election a voter may have little knowledge of the Municipal candidates and elections because that’s not the reason he came – he came to vote for President, Representative, Senator, etc

f) Last--and not least, I think its a very open question whether it is advisable to change Board members, and potentially Board majorities, in the middle of the academic school year. There is great potential for instability educationally when Board leadership changes in December, January or February.

Happy Valentine's Day! -Dr. Petrosino

PUBLIC NOTICE

HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION
PUBLIC MEETING

DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 2012
TIME: 6:00 pm: Closed Executive Session
7:00 pm: Public Meeting
LOCATION: Hoboken Board of Education Meeting Room
1115 Clinton Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030

AGENDA

6:00 pm: Closed Executive Session
7:00 pm: Public Meeting
1. Report of School Superintendent
2. Report of Interim School Business Administrator
3. Board President Report and Board Committee Reports
4. Approval of School Superintendent Agenda and School Business Administrator Agenda

Any matters relating to the above items that may come before the Board. Please be advised that the Board may be required to go into closed executive session during this meeting to discuss litigation, negotiations and personnel items. Action may be taken on all agenda items.

Published by order of the Board of Education of the School District of the City of Hoboken

William Takacs
School Business Administrator / Board Secretary



Stated Session Agenda February 14 2012