Head Start: The Answer, but Also the Question

by Catherine Martin, Spring 2013 Intern

During his 2013 State of the Union address, among the many plans he laid out for improving America, Obama managed to frame a very controversial topic in very neutral, accessible terms: He declared that his administration would “make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.” Sounds pretty great, right? Almost everyone would have a hard time arguing with rhetoric like that.

Even without his catchy speech style, there isn’t much ideological controversy in Obama’s premise; after all, who would be opposed to giving children better opportunities to succeed in education? Yet Obama’s proposal has caused a debate, but it’s not a debate over the merits of the American dream of high-quality education for three-year-olds everywhere. Instead, people are all riled up over how Obama’s proposed plan will be executed.

A version of this utopian vision of preschool education already exists. It’s called the Head Start program, established in 1965, and has provided comprehensive educational and parent involvement services to nearly 30 million low-income preschool-age children and their families throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. In 2007, it extended its services to homeless children. However, a study published in 2011 by the Department of Health and Human Services has raised serious doubts about the effectiveness of the program.

The study reflected some positive effects of the program: children who had received preschool education from Head Start “manifested less hyperactive behaviors and more positive relationships with parents” than their peers, they tested significantly better on vocabulary and oral comprehension, and parents of children in the program were more likely to read to them and involve them in cultural enrichment. However, the study also showed that although “the program had a ‘positive impact’ on children’s experiences through the preschool years, ‘advantages children gained during their Head Start and age 4 years yielded only a few statistically significant differences in outcomes at the end of 1st grade for the sample as a whole.’” After first grade, Head Start did not seem to have any significant overall social–emotional impact on its students.

The results of the study have brought strong anti–Head Start sentiments into public forums. Many argue against continuing a program that, at $7.6 billion a year, they say is much too ineffective for its price tag. Another concern is that the way in which the program is implemented simply does not yield the results that are expected of it.

The president wants to expand Head Start as well as have the federal government work with states directly to provide high-quality education to children in low- and moderate-income families. The question is not whether or not an Extended Head Start program should be implemented, but rather how it will be implemented. The best that education reform advocates—and people who believe in equal opportunities for everyone—can hope for is that Obama’s administration will work to solve the major problems existing in Head Start’s system and will build a preschool program that provides even more disadvantaged children with better education.


Further Reading

“Can Obama Sell Universal Preschool to the GOP?” The Atlantic Wire, http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/02/obama-universal-preschool-gop/62156/.

“Head Start Impact: Department of Health and Human Services Report,” Journalist’s Resource, http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/civil-rights/head-start-study/.

“In Alabama, a Model for Obama’s Push to Expand Preschool,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/education/details-emerge-on-obamas-call-to-extend-preschool.html.

Students Get Hands-On Science Experience with Inquiry

by Emeli Warren, Spring 2013 Intern

It’s been almost twelve years since I went to science camp, but I still vividly remember my experiences. I had never been that engaged in my science classes, as I was more interested in reading and writing, but the week I spent in the outdoors with my fellow elementary students was one of my favorites. Why? you might ask. I was allowed to “play” outside with my friends in the dirt, exploring the woods and examining banana slugs—while learning! At the time I may not have realized it, but I was engaging in a hands-on version of science, now being referred to with the word inquiry.

According to the National Science Education Standards, “Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.” In terms of education, this method allows students to understand scientific concepts through a personal lens, testing and developing their own theories. Inquiry science is a free-form learning experience that does not rely directly on textbooks and step-by-step procedures. Instead, students build from data-gathering techniques and factual information they have learned in the classroom or from previous textbook studies; they then take the learning outside to engage in science without the constraints of a lab. The students are responsible for finding credible solutions to their questions as well as developing the best way to present and synthesize the information.

For example, Adam Flynn, chair of William M. Davies Career & Technical Center’s science department, may ask his juniors where they think the next earthquake will strike. Rather than basing their answers purely on speculation derived from what they’ve read in their textbooks about why and how earthquakes occur, students build upon their previous knowledge and perform research to support it. As long as the students provide a logical explanation for their hypotheses, the method of obtaining exterior research is up to them—some may comb through the news, while others may explore the US Geological Center or other online sources.

Julia Steiny’s interview with Adam Flynn in Education News reveals three questions Flynn asked each science teacher:

1. What are the desired results? What, exactly, should students know and be able to do?
2. How will you assess your teaching so you’re sure the kids got it?
3. And only lastly, given numbers 1 and 2, what’s the lesson plan?

By answering these three questions, teachers are driven to assess student learning, rather than solely planning and implementing activities. For those who are wary about the effectiveness of inquiry science, Synergy Learning also offers a variety of reasons to why it works, from helping students reflect with their peers and increasing communication to connecting sequences and events, which allows them to predict and notice change. Through implementing inquiry science, students are encouraged to answer questions and critique their own work—skills that are crucial in any environment, both in and out of the classroom.

Further Reading:

“Scientific Inquiry,” National Science Teachers Association, accessed February 12, 2013,  http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/inquiry.aspx
“Julia Steiny: Inquiring Minds Want To Know Science,” Education News, accessed February 12, 2013, http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/julia-steiny-inquiring-minds-want-to-know-science/
“Inquiry Based Science: What Does it Look Like?” Institue for Inquiry, accessed February 12, 2013, http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/classroom/inquiry_based.html

Training Our Brains

by Victoria Elliott, Spring 2013 Intern

There’s a new trend in learning aids, and this one may be able to raise your IQ. “Brain training” facilities claim they can improve both IQ and cognitive skills through a regimen of games aimed at promoting brain elasticity and fluid intelligence. Though there are many companies specializing in brain training, the most notable is LearningRx, the only brick-and-mortar brain trainer, numbering 83 franchises. The rest of the trainers are either web-based or software-based, and include industry players such as Lumosity, Cogmed, Posit Science, and MindSparke.

Brain training seems deceptively simple: play games either online or with trainers and quickly increase your processing speed, logic, memory, and attention. But there is a heavy dose of science behind it. The n-back, introduced in 1958 and the most popular game in the business, challenges memory, asking users to recall things such as the color of an image or the location of a letter. The item that has been presented immediately before is 1-back, the time before last is 2-back, and the time before that is 3-back. This continues further backwards if the trainee successfully remembers the requested detail or moves to an easier level if the detail is missed. The n-back is used to improve fluid intelligence, which is the ability to both reason quickly and think abstractly; some other brain training tactics are not quite as science based, such as clapping to teach trainees to ignore distractions. It may sound a touch crude, but it seems to work.

Erin Matlock, the editor-in-chief of BrainTraining101.com, a Web site dedicated to the promotion of brain and mental health products, completed a 19-day trial of MindSparke’s Brain Fitness Pro as a test to see just how well brain training works. Ms. Matlock, a registered member of Mensa, spent around 30 minutes a day in computer-based training sessions for her trial run. She took an IQ test both before and after she completed the nearly three weeks of training, and came up with a twelve-point increase.

Because research on the programs is quite new, scientists disagree whether one can truly improve through brain training or if trainees are merely learning to take tests. However, LearningRx reports IQ leaps of up to 15 points after 24 weeks and 20 points in less than 32 weeks of training. The web-based trainers do not claim that their programs improve IQ, but they definitely believe the programs increase cognitive performance.

Matlock can certainly attest to that claim. She acknowledges that her second IQ test was an approximation, as it was online and not professionally done. However, she could not ignore the improvements she noticed in her day-to-day life, including increased brain stamina, short-term memory, and productivity levels. With such quick results, Matlock thoroughly endorses the product.

Further Reading:

“The Brain Trainers,” The New York Times, accessed February 6, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/a-new-kind-of-tutoring-aims-to-make-students-smarter.html.

“How I Improved My Productivity, Strengthened My Working Memory and Increased My IQ Score by 12 Points in 19 Days,” Brain Training 101, http://www.braintraining101.com/increased-my-iq-score-by-12-points-in-19-days/.

Tolkien Hype Gets in the Way of Serious Consideration

by Catherine Martin, Spring 2013 Intern


You could say that his literary presence is as resilient as the One Ring’s will to conquer Middle-earth. More than 40 years after his death, J.R.R. Tolkien’s unfinished manuscripts are still being discovered and dusted off for public consumption. Last year, in an article entitled “An Unexpected Journey: Hobbits in the Heartland,” New York Times reporter Lawrence Downes let everyone in on the secret that all of Tolkien’s archives—from notes to original manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings written in longhand—have been living peacefully in the Raynor Memorial Libraries at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1957.

This year, Tolkien’s son Christopher will publish one of his father’s many unfinished manuscripts he has “squirreled away” in his home: a book-length poem called The Fall of Arthur, about the king’s last days. The poem, which will be published under J.R.R. Tolkien’s name and listed as edited by Christopher Tolkien, is highly anticipated.

But if the excerpt of the poem that accompanies Sarah Sloat’s Speakeasy article is any indication, such anticipation may not be warranted. Which leaves the question: Why exactly are people so excited?

Whether you’re a fan of Middle-earth or not, the educational benefits Tolkien’s books cannot be denied. Their all-ages appeal stems from their complexity: they’re epic fantasy adventures that present good and evil in a unique and thought-provoking way. But Tolkien’s distinct, heavily academic writing style adds another layer of meaning to his work. Some people, especially children, find his tone prohibitive to read, but regardless of how unappealing his writing may be, he demonstrates that it’s possible to approach intellectual pursuit with any attitude you want. Myths and legends don’t always have to be Disney-fied to have widespread appeal; you can write about whatever you want to, in whatever style best suits you, and if you do it well enough, it won’t matter whether you use practically indecipherable slang or are so formal you refuse to use contractions in your writing.

However giant a literary figure Tolkien may be, his work still does not all occupy a single tier of readership ability: The Hobbit, originally written for children, is the most accessible installment of his Middle-earth saga, and, therefore the most appealing; The Lord of the Rings, with its overextended genealogies and many languages, is a history or language nerd’s dream, but plenty more people would rather watch the movies; The Silmarillion, probably the least well-known of his well-known books (and also edited and published by Christopher Tolkien), doesn’t even have a narrative, but is rather a collection of stories offering deeper insight into Middle-earth’s history.

Yet, with the rediscovery of Tolkien’s yards of unpublished, unfinished manuscripts, the academic community and, more enthusiastically, The Lord of the Rings fandom, seem to have forgotten one of the most important rules of considering the full breadth of any author’s work: whenever you come across the extra stuff that was left out of the final published product, there is a reason the extra stuff was left out in the first place.

Of course we shouldn’t limit public access to Tolkien’s work. There are good reasons to publish The Fall of Arthur and any other manuscripts the Tolkien estate sees fit to make available. But within all the enthusiasm for these new manuscripts lies an important lesson about appreciating an author’s work: each piece should be treated on its own terms and never assumed to be equally good. It’s unfair to both reader and writer to hold every new manuscript up to the standards of the gems in Tolkien’s (or anyone’s) rather large repertoire, and to forget that for every genius idea on center stage, there are one hundred extra ideas waiting in the wings, where they should probably remain.

Further Reading:

“An Unexpected Journey: Hobbits in the Heartland," New York Times, accessed February 12, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/hobbits-in-the-heartland.html?_r=1&

"J.R.R. Tolkien Moves From Middle-Earth to Camelot," Wall Street Journal, accessed February 12, 2013, http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/10/16/j-r-r-tolkien-moves-from-middle-earth-to-camelot/ "J.R.R. Tolkien Collection," Marquette University, accessed February 12, 2013, http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/tolkien.shtml

"How the Hobbit Came to Milkwaukee (Excerpts from the Q&A)," YouTube, accessed February 12, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFY534kSm90

Dr. Seuss's Read Across America

by Emeli Warren, Spring 2013 Intern

For many decades, Dr. Seuss has been a legend in children’s literature and educational settings. Growing up, I could just as easily recognize the striped top hat from The Cat in the Hat as I could my Barbie doll. Having such vivid illustrations to associate with Seuss’s stories just piqued my interest as an avid young reader. Who knew that I was also learning moral lessons and increasing my cognitive function that allowed me to recognize letters of the alphabet?

Many of Seuss’s books maintained views of society and touched on politically charged issues from environmental awareness to the dangers of materialism. But most of all, the books of Dr. Seuss have promoted literacy in children through creative visuals and rhythmic poetry.

Six years after his Seuss’s death in 1991, a group of National Education Association members wanted to do something to get children excited about reading. They decided the best way to do this was to dedicate a day to reading and to one of children’s literature’s most legendary benefactors. Celebrated on or around Dr. Seuss’s birthday, March 2, Read Across America has more than 3.2 million participants and supporters doing their best to change a child’s life through reading.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 26% of children who were read to three or four times by a family member in the last week recognized all letters of the alphabet, versus the 14% of children who were read to less often. Further still, the US Department of Education also found that students who picked up a book on their own to read for fun had higher reading scores than those who didn’t. The books that Seuss produced were ones that drew children in, electing to read on their own time. According to National Public Radio, Dr. Seuss was one of the first authors to achieve the goal of providing children with books that taught them to read and were fun at the same time.

William Spaulding, the then-director of Houghton Mifflin’s education division, had seen an article written by John Hersey in a 1954 issue of Life magazine that claimed Hersey knew why kids weren’t choosing to read: the books were too boring! Spaulding contacted Dr. Seuss, asking him to write a book that could keep first-grade readers engaged. In response, Dr. Seuss wrote Cat in the Hat from a vocabulary list for six- and seven-year-olds as a replacement for the Dick and Jane readers. Up until this time, Seuss had been used to making up his own words—sticking to a list was quite the challenge. In the end, the 236-word book was a huge success, not only in sales (he sold two million by the second year!), but also through breaking ground in child literacy by showing children how enjoyable reading could be.

In addition to Cat in the Hat, Seuss wrote more than 40 books, selling more than half a million copies between them. His inspiration ranged from his baker mother who used to sing him to sleep using “pie-selling chants,” to a bet where he claimed he could write a book using only fifty words, resulting in Green Eggs and Ham. It is his huge success as an author and his influence on the metamorphosis of children’s literature that makes him a perfect representation of Read Across America and its goal to promote lifelong reading and learning. This year’s event takes place on March 1,, bringing together children and their teachers all over the country. Albert Einstein reminds us of the importance of imagination in his quote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Seuss enhances children’s imaginations through his creation of fictitious characters and illustration style, reminding people each day just how fun reading can be.

Further Reading

“Facts about Children’s Literacy,” NEA, accessed January 29, 2013, http://www.nea.org/grants/13662.htm.

“Fifty Years of the ‘Cat in the Hat,’” NPR, accessed January 29, 2013, http://www.npr.org/2007/03/01/7651308/fifty-years-of-the-cat-in-the-hat

“10 facts about Dr. Seuss,” BBC News, accessed January 29, 2013, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3523393.stm.

Enhancing Education Through Comics

by Emeli Warren, Spring 2013 Intern

If you asked me a week ago what I thought about when I heard the word comics, I would have mentioned the colored “funnies” in the Sunday newspaper, or the brightly illustrated magazines featuring superheroes rescuing their damsels in distress. Not anymore! Today, the art medium that uniquely uses both text and imagery is being woven into education to promote literacy and hands-on interaction with reading and writing.

Stephen Cary, who is the author of Going Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom and a language learning specialist, says that comics have several forces in enhancing education, including motivating reluctant readers, engaging students in new literary formats and helping students identify not only various uses of language but also symbolism, satire and humor—things that text on its own cannot do.

The dual coding theory, first proposed by Allan Paivio in 1971, “. . . supports the importance of imagery and narration in cognitive operations.” According to the theory, imagery helps a person to recall verbal material when a word can be associated with a certain image. Comics, some are saying, is one of the ways this theory can be implemented into education for young students.

Thanks to today’s technology, it is now easier than ever to create comics in the classroom. One such outlet is through Comic Life, computer software that allows students to make their own comics in school computer labs. Although users need to provide their own images, adding these and word balloons is as easy as dragging and dropping into a template provided. The author of the program, Glen Bledsoe, notes the way these comics can help students not only learn the use of narrative devices, but also the power of framing and different perspectives. Students can better understand the impact a visual can have on dialogue context by using cropped images that focus on facial emotion or a slightly altered image across multiple frames to imply movement. Students can also see the evolution of a story depending on the rearrangement of speech bubbles or the way tension can be built or released based on frame layout.

Computer applications like Comic Life are changing the way students can interact with their own brand of publishing in the classroom. By incorporating comic creation into a lesson plan, teachers can show students how to enhance their skills as artists and writers, utilizing creativity in the classroom to expand and develop essential skills.

Further Reading:

“Dual Coding and Common Coding Theories in Memory,” Stanford University, accessed January 31, 2013., http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/theories-memory.html.

“Comic Life in Education,” Comic Life in Education, accessed January 31, 2013, http://comiclife.com/education.

“EduComics Project,” EduComics, accessed January 31, 2013, http://www.educomics.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=27.

“Comics and Education Meet at First Ever Wildcat Comic Con,” Publishers Weekly, accessed January 31, 2013, http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/51445-comics-and-education-meet-at-first-ever-wildcat-comic-con.html.

“From Digitised Comic Books to Digital Hypermedia Comic Books: Their Use in Education,” Comic Strip Creator, accessed January 31, 2013, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CD4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comicstripcreator.org%2Ffiles%2Fpapers%2FDigitalHypermediaComics.pdf&ei=rY0KUfX1Aoa70AHd6IDQAQ&usg=AFQjCNHd0oNL1zFZX8kyUgSBqysVcdeeDQ&sig2=lLngYBMiyUkhb4yCFRDD1g.

Keeping Kids Interested in Poetry

by Kate Carroll, Editorial Assistant (former Intern)

I’m not a poet, and I certainly do know it. But long before the times when I was asked to analyze the symbolism of “The Raven,” back when I was an eager pupil who thought “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was about Santa Claus, poetry was fun.

Part of what made it fun was the activities my teachers would assign. From drawings to dioramas, the crafts would give me something to look forward to. Today, there are multiple ways to keep kids interested in poetry: ReadWriteThink.org has combined crafts with technology into a program that encourages kids in grades K–5 to write their own “Theme Poems.”

Students begin by simply typing in their names, then proceeding to select a category; they then have their choice of 32 category-specific “objects.” From there, the program provides eight spaces to write “some words or phrases that remind you of this [object],” promoting the brainstorming process and allowing kids to think outside of the box. The final step involves the actual writing of the poem by typing directly into the object. Users are encouraged to apply the words from the previous step, a reminder of their thoughts on the subject. Finished? Students can print their poem immediately. Want to go back? They can just save their progress and return at any time.

The site presents new activities for all sorts of lessons, be it a regular lesson on poetry where students can pick their favorite topic, or something specific like Flag Day, where the flag object would be ideal. Teaching the basics of photosynthesis? Why not have students create poems about the process using the flower, leaf or sun objects?

Further approaches to fun poetry can be found with a quick Internet search. Scholastic provides students and teachers in grades K–8 with templates to be printed for various poetry topics. PoetryTeachers.com provides a wide range of inside- and outside-the-classroom activities, from tongue twisters to poetry “theater.” And PBS has a poetry aspect of its site where one can submit poems or browse through some lesson plan ideas. Whether students need a break once in a while from the typical approaches to writing poetry, or parents are trying to keep their kids’ brains active during a long school break, each of these ideas is a great new way to remind students—and teachers and parents as well—that poetry can, in fact, be fun.

Controversial Laws for Underperforming School

by Annette Trossello, Project Manager & Copyeditor

Won’t Back Down is a 2012 drama starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as a single mom to a dyslexic daughter, Viola Davis as a teacher at a failing inner-city elementary school and Holly Hunter as a teacher’s union representative. In the movie, Gyllenhaal’s and Davis’s characters use a fail-safe law to take over the underperforming school. The film plays out in typical Hollywood fashion with plucky heroines, underhanded villains and heartwarming scenes. The response to the film has been intense and varied as can be seen by its reviews: “A Political Football in the Classroom,” “‘Won’t Back Down’ doesn’t let up on unions” and “New movie ‘Won’t Back Down’ makes the case for education reform.” This film has received so much attention because it is loosely based on actual laws called parent trigger laws.

California, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas have versions of parent trigger laws, which allow parents to trigger a change in unsuccessful schools. The laws vary from state to state, and parents have a variety of intervention options, including replacing faculty and staff, shutting down the school or converting to a charter school. Many states require that a majority of parents with children in the school sign a petition. Some states also require a local public hearing or that the state education agency approve the chosen intervention. The local school board has different options depending on the state as well; some are required to implement the intervention while others have the option to propose a different course of action.

Those who advocate the laws feel that they give power to parents of children in failing schools. Typically, these parents have no other schooling options for their children. Proponents of the laws also feel that the current process for improving school systems is too slow and doesn’t have the best interest of the students at its core.

Opponents of the law feel the existing policies for underperforming schools are sufficient. They also assert that there’s no research to verify claims that these interventions will improve the performance of schools. Those who do not approve of the laws believe in opportunities for parents, community members and teachers to work together to improve schools, but that trigger laws are not the answer. Many teachers unions are also opposed to them, as the unions feel parent trigger laws can lead to privatizing education.

In California, there have been two schools where parents have attempted to trigger a change. The first was at McKinley Elementary in Compton, California, where parents petitioned for the failing school be turned into a charter school. The school board unanimously rejected the effort for a variety of reasons. The second was at Desert Trails Elementary, an underperforming school in Adelanto, California. After a nearly two-year battle, the school district approved a charter school operator. With this success, we are likely to see more cases of parents using these trigger laws in an attempt to improve their children’s education. One hopes no matter what the outcome of these cases that parents and teachers can work together to give students the best education possible.