Harvard expert on closing the achievement gap to speak at Grand Rapids Community College

GRAND RAPIDS – An expert in closing the academic achievement gap will speak Monday night at Grand Rapids Community College about “Excellence with equity: a social movement for the 21st century.”

On Tuesday, Ronald Ferguson, senior lecturer in education and public policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School, will speak to school administrators, teachers and other staff at the Grand Rapids Public Schools Summer Leadership Institute.

Ferguson’s research and writing has focused on the racial achievement gap, how to improve schools and identifying effective teachers. He is faculty co-chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard.

The initiative is a university-wide effort established by the Harvard Graduate School of Education to focus on eliminating achievement gaps through academic research, public education, and innovative outreach activities.

The ground-breaking findings that have come from Dr. Ferguson and his colleagues have made an impact across the U.S., and are so relevant right here, right now, in our own community, said Dr. Gilda Gely, GRCC provost and executive vice president for academic and student affairs.

This is information the residents of West Michigan need to hear, from local funders, policy makers and business leadersparticularly those interested in workforce developmentto teachers, administrators and, certainly, parents.

Fergusonm who was recently profiled in The New York Times, is also the creator of the Tripod Project for School Improvement.

“Every setting matters,” Ferguson told the Cleveland Plain Dealer earlier this year about everything in students lives needing to support professional development – home, schools and neighborhood.

The GRCC lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in the Applied Technology Center Auditorium, room 168. It is open to the public.

Ferguson, who is also an economist and Senior Research Associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, most recent book is “Toward Excellence with Equity: An emerging vision for closing the achievement gap.”

Were very pleased to be welcoming Dr. Ferguson to Grand Rapids, said Senita Lenear, president of the Grand Rapids Board of Education. His work is at the forefront of research around closing the achievement gap, one of the most pressing issues in public education today.

Ex-Hollywood Christian volunteer coach Tillman pleads guilty to sex with student

FORT LAUDERDALE — A one-time volunteer coach at Hollywood Christian Academy pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a reduced charge of child abuse for having sex with a 15-year-old student last year.

David Tillman was accused along with his uncle, Raymond Holmes, of bringing two female students to Tillman’s home to have sex with them. Holmes, 30, and Tillman, 21, were each charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

By pleading guilty Tuesday, Tillman had his charge reduced to child abuse and avoided a prison term. Broward Circuit Judge Barbara McCarthy sentenced him to a year of community control — an intensive form of house arrest — followed by four years of probation.

Testifying against his uncle was not part of the deal.

Tillman was 19 and a volunteer track coach at the academy when he had sex with the 15-year-old girl he brought to his home on March 19, 2010, according to the arrest report by Fort Lauderdale police. Holmes was 29 when he allegedly had sex with a 16-year-old the same day.

The 16-year-old girl’s mother found explicit text messages between Holmes and her daughter, according to police.

The next scheduled court date for Holmes is in September.

A message left with the headmaster of Hollywood Christian Academy was not returned Tuesday.

Notes from the news, July 25

Ackerman fans take their voices to the street Philadelphia Tribune
Supporters rallied at 440 Friday to show their support for Ackerman in response to what they say is a plan to remove her.

State investigators found suspicious patterns of changed answers on tests at Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Middle School The Inquirer
A quarter of the school’s 7th and 8th graders had suspicious erasure patterns on the 2009 PSSA.

Ackerman has taken 10 furlough days The Notebook blog
Ackerman says she does not plan to ask to be compensated for the furlough days later.

Teachers, umpires fume about delayed paychecks The Inquirer
Laid off teachers were promised a lump sum payment of any salary balance by last Friday.

School District mismanaging safety cameras The Inquirer
Security cameras are not always operational and can be “haphazardly monitored.”

Summer school: The essential bridge The Inquirer
Summer school provides extra time for special education students and for other students who want to retain skills going into the fall.

#140Edu – The State of Education Now Practical Theory blog
The conference takes place next week in NYC.

The Reform Symposium 2011 Philly Teacher blog
This conference takes place online over three days.

Inquirer Editorial: Cutting class The Inquirer

Reflections: Then and Now-How Does the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Explain its Test Results? City School Stories

Social Studies Activity: City Guide A Broad View blog

Keystone State Education Coalition

Please if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.

Reports: Tuition hike may cost MSU $18 million in state funding

Increased tuition rates at Michigan State University may exceed state-mandated limitations, potentially costing the university millions, according to reports.

July 22, Detroit Free Press: “When Michigan State University students return this fall, they’ll be paying 9.4% more in tuition than the year before, a situation that has irked some state officials.

The increase appears to violate a provision in the state budget, which placed a 7.1% cap on raising tuition. Wayne State University is also under scrutiny by state officials, who say its fall increase is 8.4%.

Some legislators and a state fiscal agency report say the universities failed to factor increases to tuition for the current summer semester, pushing the real increase beyond the cap.”

The Michigan House fiscal Agency earlier this month reported that MSU’s tuition will be 9.4 percent higher this fall than a year ago.

That figure would cost the university $18.3 million in state aid as a penalty for exceeding the 7.1 percent tuition-hike cap, on top of the 15 percent cut in state aid Michigan’s 15 public universities have been budgeted for.

But MSU officials say the state’s math is off.

July 22, Detroit Free Press: “MSU disputes the way the state has calculated the percentages. School officials say a 2.4% increase to the current summer semester shouldn’t count, in part, because it represents the unfreezing of a past summer tuition increase that was already approved. By that logic, tuition is increasing only 6.9% from academic year to academic year, MSU contends.

That argument didn’t win many friends among state lawmakers during a legislative committee hearing Thursday morning about the issue.

‘I think, in my personal opinion, this is a cute play on the definition of the academic year to get a bigger tuition increase,’ said state Rep. Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant.

Not so, said Mark Haas, MSU’s chief financial officer. ‘We’re not trying to be cute. We’re not playing games. We believe we did the right thing.’”

Regardless of whether MSU was consistent with the letter of the law, Cotter and other Republican members of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee at a meeting last week said the university did not uphold the law’s intent, according to the Lansing State Journal.

July 22, LSJ: “If MSU doesn’t lower tuition of its own accord … ‘my personal opinion is we may have to rectify this,’ he said.

He raised the possibility of a ‘negative supplemental,’ a cut from MSU’s budget that would be voted on by the Legislature.

There were students at the meeting who urged the committee to make MSU reel in its tuition increase. There were others who urged them not to cut MSU’s funding any further.”

Student rights group targets Boca High cellphone searches

A civil-rights group is calling on Boca Raton High School to stop its practice of searching confiscated student cellphones and punishing students who don’t provide access to their text messages or other content.

The National Youth Rights Association of Washington, D.C., on Monday outlined its concerns in a letter to Boca Raton High Principal Geoff McKee.

This complaint, which is the organization’s first challenge on this issue, contends the school’s practices “infringe upon the fundamental freedoms of its students and run counter to the holdings of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the Florida Legislature.”

The letter acknowledges the high school’s right to seize student phones that are viewed as “disruptive and distracting to learning.”

But administrators should not be inspecting these devices to examine photos, text messages and other content, said Jeffrey Nadel, president of the 10,000-member association, which fights for the rights of young people nationwide.

According to the youth rights group, the school also has threatened students with in-school suspensions if they refuse to provide passcodes that are needed to access the phones in the same way passwords are needed to use computers and email accounts.

“We really saw this as a particularly egregious set of circumstances,” said Nadel, who cited complaints from current and former students. “You don’t teach young people to be good American citizens by infringing on their fundamental rights.”

McKee said he had not yet seen the letter, but he promised to give it consideration. It’s true that administrators have seized and examined cellphones, he said.

“I understand the grounds for the concerns expressed, and with input from our district legal department, I intend to review our policy regarding student cellphones,” McKee said.

A 2004 state law allows students to take wireless devices to school, but Palm Beach County School Board policy says they must be turned off and put in pockets or backpacks while in class, on buses and at school events. Camera phones are prohibited.

The Boca Raton High School student handbook cites the board policy, but also adds two sentences that the rights groups blasted as “unconstitutional.”

Those lines are: “Students are responsible for the content of text messages, images, and other information on cellphones. Illicit phone contents will lead to added consequences.”

Nadel asked for that language to be removed from the handbook. It’s unclear if other schools’ handbooks have the same wording as Boca High.

McKee said the issue is making sure that the phones do not contain things like photos of test sheets or harassing text messages.

“Our focus for discipline is on inappropriate use of cellphones,” he said.

But the complaint says the school must stop after students surrender their phones, and students should not be presumed guilty of wrongdoing.

“Given that there exist no reasonable grounds to suspect any further violations of school rules or of the law, any search of the actual contents of the phone certainly would not be reasonably related to the objective of the seizure — which is to prevent disruptive conduct,” Nadel wrote.

Meanwhile, the school district continues to explore ways to remove the ban on student cellphones to take advantage of new technologies and boost achievement. Officials have said these rules, while helping to protect children from cyber-bullying and prevent high-tech cheating, are also out of touch with today’s world of instant communication and contrary to federal recommendations to turn classrooms into smartphone hubs.

Administrators say they’ve been pleased with the results of pilot programs featuring smartphone or PDA-based instruction. Teachers said the technology can capture students’ attention in previously unimaginable ways, with tools such as video demonstrations and personalized lessons.

Michigan students help discover pair of wrecks during shiphunt in Lake Huron

ALPENA — A small, clearly defined image flickered on the screen as the research crew of Project Shiphunt combed the chilly waters of northern Lake Huron this spring.

The double-masted schooner had an obvious hole near the bow along its starboard side, evidence of a collision that sent the 19th-century cargo ship and its crew of five to the lake floor almost exactly 122 years before.

It was literally history come alive.

Within a week, the crew of Project Shiphunt which included five high school students from Saginaw had identified two previously undiscovered wrecks in more than 300 feet of water just outside of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

“That was just powerful, to be the first human eyes to look at these since they went to the bottom,” said James Delgado, director of Maritime Heritage at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and expedition leader for Project Shiphunt. “We were looking for a ship that was sunk in a collision, and we ended up finding two other ships that were sunk in a collision.”

The project was a joint venture sponsored by Sony and Intel corporations that incorporated technology, oceanography, archeology and history into a hands-on curriculum that brought history to life for the Saginaw students during six days in May. The students directed the mission, charted the map in search of the steamer Choctaw, and manned the massive research vessels as they painted the floor of Lake Huron with triple-beam and side-scan sonars.

“We expected them to do everything, other than the diving,” Delgado said.

The crew didnt locate the Choctaw, but instead found the 138-foot schooner M.F. Merrick and the steel freighter Etruria. The students used historical records and diving experts to identify the ships, and helped to document the vessels in 3-D for the newest exhibit at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.

The mission was filmed for a documentary airing on the Current cable channel at 10 p.m. Aug. 30.

Students explored the ships with remote-operated underwater vehicles and directed divers who collected samples of the century-old cargo. Once the identity of the ships was confirmed, students learned that five crew members — five men and a female cook — lost their lives on the Merrick in 1889, when the wooden ship collided with a steamer in dense fog off the coast of Alpena.

The Etruria met the same fate in 1905, and the frigid temperatures in the depths of Lake Huron have preserved both vessels relatively undisturbed for more than a century.

Both ships represent what once was the lifeblood of the American economy, transferring cargo along the Great Lakes shorelines. Their discovery reveals a peek into history often eroded on land by weather or human influence, said Jeff Gray, superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

“Each (shipwreck) really tells a new story and a new chapter in history,” Gray said. “It really shows how they fueled the industrial revolution. The men and women who worked these vessels really made that happen.

“It tells the bigger picture story of the economic history of our country, but also the individual stories of the men and women who worked on these ships.”Connect: Watch videos featuring Shipwreck Alley and Discovering the M.F. Merrick.