Middle College National Consortium

by Ron Tanner, November 6, 2011 This article echoes some of what Geoff ? said several years ago. When I began teaching a course called "Writing for the Web," three years ago, I pictured myself scrambling to keep up with my plugged-in, tech-savvy students. I was sure I was in over my head. So I was stunned to discover that most of the 20-year-olds I meet know very little about the Internet, and even less about how to communicate effectively online. The media present young people as the audacious pilots of a technological juggernaut. Think Napster, Twitter, Facebook. Given that the average 18-year-old spends hours each day immersed in electronic media, we oldsters tend to assume that every other teenager is the next Mark Zuckerberg. Aren't kids crazy about downloading music, swapping files, sharing links, texting, and playing video games? But video games do not create savvy users of the Internet. Video games predate the Internet and have little to do with online culture. When games are played online, the computer is no longer an open portal to the world. It is an insular system, related only to other gaming machines, like Nintendo and Xbox. The only communication that games afford is within the closed world of the game itself-who is on my team? At their worst, games divert children from other, more enriching experiences. The Internet's chief similarity to video games is that both siphon off audiences from television, which will soon reside exclusively on the Internet. As a delivery system for television, film, and games, the Internet has proved itself a premier source of entertainment. And that's all that most young people know about it. Why wouldn't we educate students in sophisticated uses of the Internet, which is commanding an increasing amount of the world's time and attention? I'm not talking about a course on "How to Understand the Internet" or an introduction to searching for legitimate research-paper sources online (although that is useful, obviously

by Derek Bruff, November 6, 2011. The best justification of the Innovation Lab premise that I have seen. "Sharing student work on a course blog is an example of what Randall Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, of Georgetown University, call "social pedagogies." They define these as "design approaches for teaching and learning that engage students with what we might call an 'authentic audience' (other than the teacher), where the representation of knowledge for an audience is absolutely central to the construction of knowledge in a course."" Often our students engage in what Ken Bain, vice provost and a historian at Montclair State University, calls strategic or surface learning, instead of the deep learning experiences we want them to have. Deep learning is hard work, and students need to be well motivated in order to pursue it. Extrinsic factors like grades aren't sufficient-they motivate competitive students toward strategic learning and risk-averse students to surface learning. Social pedagogies provide a way to tap into a set of intrinsic motivations that we often overlook: people's desire to be part of a community and to share what they know with that community. My students might not see the beauty and power of mathematics, but they can look forward to participating in a community effort to learn about math. Online, social pedagogies can play an important role in creating such a community. These are strong motivators, and we can make use of them in the courses we teach.

Written by Mark S. Schneider for American Institutes for Research (AIR), October 2011. See this page for the Executive Summary, as well as a link to the full report, available as PDF. From the Summary, "This report focuses on the high costs of the low retention and completion rates that are far too typical of community colleges."

This page includes not only completion data, but also the 2011 national report, Time is the Enemy, with downloadable summary, tables, state profiles, and full report. In the Metrics That Matter Most section, see links for remediation enrollment figures and for remediation graduation metrics.

As posted on eLobbyist.com. This House bill requires the state to review and make recommendations on "Early College High Schools" for the state of Mississippi.

From Oregon's state website, an outline of Governor Kitzhaber's recent plan to establish the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB), where there were previously 2 separate bodies (one for k-12 and one for postsecondary). This focus on a "zero-to-20 system," intends to help the Governor meet his goal of "all Oregonians earn[ing] a high school diploma...prepared for college and work, and...80% of students achieve at least two years of post-secondary education or training."

By Alyson Klein in the Politics K-12 blog of Education Week, October 11 2011. The blog post outlines the recent Harkin proposal for reauthorization of ESEA/NCLB

Study authored by Julie Edmunds and published on the SERVECenter site of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. According to the abstract, "North Carolina has established the largest number of Early College High Schools (ECHS) in the United States." This study finds that, based on 9th grade results, ECHS "are creating more positive school environments for students." Study can be downloaded from this page.

author of study was a participant

Faculty page for Dr. Howard Coleman

Dr. Coleman helped participant's school monitor/benchmark progress and assist in development of a plan for improvement

From About Us, the Clearinghouse is a non-profit and "the nation's trusted source for student degree and enrollment verification." In addition to "verification reporting systems," the organization also has a research arm.

Regularly updated information provided by Center on Education Policy (CEP). This state-by-state list details which states have applied (or plain to apply) for waivers to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as announced by Education Secretary Arne Duncan in August 2011.

Published by the American Youth Policy Forum in conjunction with Gateway to College National Network and National Youth Employment Coalition.

"The New York Performance Standards Consortium represents 28 schools across New York State. Formed in 1997, the Consortium opposes high stakes tests arguing that "one size does not fit all." The consortium has developed their own system for performance assessment, and also offers links to research, reports and data.

Presented by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, this page discusses such shared characteristics as core principles, college-wide commitment to the EC partnership, and adopting strategies that are research-based.

Written by Elisabeth Barnett, Kristen Bucceri, Claudia Hindo and Jennifer Kim. Published by National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching (NCREST), October 2011.

In The What of Proof (data) of Early College Success, this paper was cited, with special mention of page 37 (Decision 10: How Will We Know if We're Succeeding).

Built by Jobs for the Future (JFF), this toolkit helps Early Colleges organize, analyze and understand their data.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) "is an elementary through postsecondary college readiness system that is designed to increase schoolwide learning and performance." According to their website, AVID began in 1980 at Clairemont High School and now serves "over 400,000 students in nearly 4,500 elementary and secondary schools in 47 states, the District of Columbia and across 16 countries/territories.

Smart Scholars was a grant program sponsored by the New York State Education Department. This page includes information for participants. See the Questions and Answers from the Field link to learn more about the program.

A program of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) promoting Shakespeare in the schools. The campaign was launched in 2008. On this page, you can download the manifesto, as well as some programs that we created by this campaign.

This site reviews the Senior Project for Bashier Middle College.