A New Walker Report on Wisconsin Higher Education

Don't you just love last-minute breaking news when you're trying to head out the door on vacation? Come on.....! 

THIS JUST IN.

Tim Sullivan, businessman, has issued a blueprint prepared for Governor Scott Walker that includes some significant plans for higher education.

Among its highlights:

• The skills gap demonstrated by highly-esteemed economists, as well as leading Wisconsin organizations with sizable expertise in business and higher education is apparently a "myth."  Writes Sullivan, "there are opportunities available if people know where to look and can see the value." (p.101) Sure, he admits his is no scientific study-- after all, he is doing policy analysis by anecdote, drawing on his experiences at his own company-- but gee, he's sure confident there's a myth out there to be busted!
• The costs of Wisconsin Technical Colleges are too high because they are doing too much--namely, wasting time on liberal arts college transfer, "spending millions" before "technical education even comes into the picture."
• The new online initiative in UW System is expected to "change the face of education in Wisconsin."  Boy, and we just thought it was an addition, not a replacement....
• UW System, including UW-Madison, is "failing" to produce enough new start-ups, and needs to be more focused on business collaborations.
• We should open the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (which already runs out of money every year compared to demand among degree-seeking students) to non-degree seeking students. Yes, he said "open" the grant-- not add funding to the grant. Hmm.
• UW System should pay the additional tuition if students don't finish their degrees in 4 years.  That's right-- UWS-- not the state, even though economists like John Bound and Sarah Turner convincingly demonstrate that time-to-degree rises because states cut funding to universities! 
• The publics should act more like the privates and give out more financial aid.  The latter give out a wider range of aid.  Again, duh....wonder why.

Ok, enough. Read the darned thing for yourself, and write in and tell us all about your favorite parts.  Tim Sullivan, businessman, here to save higher ed.

When the Common Core ELA Standards = Teaching Reading Strategies 2.0

This week, I have another post on the Core Knowledge Blog, this one about the Common Core,  complex text, and teaching reading strategies. It seems that some Common Core advocates are operating on the assumption that complex text is something you can explicitly teach kids to read. I see this as the same old reading strategies approach to literacy that hasn't been fruitful with the current reading standards. Until we change how we approach developing literacy (beyond decoding) differently, struggling readers will continue to struggle, no matter the standards:

Although I’ve been critical of the Common Core Standards, that they focus on reading strategies was not one of my criticisms; to the contrary, that they emphasized content knowledge, a greater study of literature, and more and more complex writing were selling points. But this account makes the Common Core ELA Standards sound as if they areskill-heavy, or at least that teachers are being guided to implement them as if they were. The problem is you can’t really teach something like “text complexity” any more than you can teach something like the “main idea.” Just because the texts are more “complex” doesn’t make using them in the place of simpler texts a superior approach or any different from the reading strategies approach. Apart from the acknowledgement that all teachers have to teach vocabulary (agreed), there’s no nod to background knowledge or context in Headden’s post. And even teaching vocabulary doesn’t do much good if it’s taught in isolation, though certainly explicitly teaching the meaning of morphemes can help students to build and make meaning of vocabulary.

Read all of it.

5 Ways To Support Montessori Kids

Now that Iris and Sarah are off to school (with Mom), I'm remembering how important it is to support
the Montessori-Schooled Child while considering their school-specific needs.
This photo is Madeline in our old school, viewing the world- up close.

1.  Read
Make time each day to read to your child.  This is the most important things a parent can do for any child.  If they can, ask them to return that favor (even if they are just making up the stories).  Visit libraries and bookstores, not just kindles and iPads!  Show them that reading isn't just a skill, but a world of adventure.  Also, read for pleasure in front of them.  I always find my girls curl up next to me with their books while I read my own books.

2.  Art
Provide plenty of time and materials for art; both creation and appreciation.  Go visit museums on weekends, or show the child books with art from all cultures and times.  Consider having an art area/table, where the child can create open-ended art.  Using pencils, crayons, paints, and clay at home supports the coordination and control they work on all day at Montessori.  We all know creativity is linked so deeply with intelligence. 

3.  Simplify
Take time to "just be."  Children can be over programmed, overstimulated, and overtired to the point where learning is impeded.  Try taking breaks from activities and spending time just being together.  No plan, just being together.  Time away from screens and electronic toys creates calm and room for real thought.  Considering the child's needs for rest can help him/her have successful school days with less fatigue.  

4.  Nature
Get outside.  Country or city, there's so much world to see.  Get out there, and spark some wonder in yourself and your little ones.  The best memories I have with my girls were surrounded by leaves, sand, and grass.

5.  Think Independence

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.  ~ Dr. Maria Montessori  Allow your children to dress themselves, help to cook and prepare meals, and clean up around the house.  Beyond that, try to imagine ways to set things up in your home to keep more at the child's level.  Can they reach the soap themselves?  Perhaps a stool will help.  Can your child help themselves to a healthy snack or a drink?  Give it a try!  Children need independence and support simultaneously, it is a balance to play with throughout their growth.

Making the Pell Grant Memorable

In a new policy brief just released by the Scholars Strategy Network at Harvard University, I make the case that the emotional meanings of financial aid can and should be enhanced to promote student success.  Sociologists and psychologists have long known that money has social value and that this can be increased through social connections.  The creators of the GI Bill understood this and took advantage of it by ensuring all recipients understood where funding for that program came from and what it meant. The same must now be done for the federal Pell Grant.  In fact, it could be done for all grant programs.  Governors, mayors, legislators, and yes, presidents, should get involved in conveying a strong, supportive message to the millions of needy yet promising students struggling every day to make it through college.

PS. Just got the following response on Twitter.

@saragoldrickrab TRUTH. as #Pell Recipient, I had no idea why I received 3K for my education.. just thankful w. no one to thank
— Dan S. (@destatter) August 7, 2012

Wisconsin Needs to Educate, Not Incarcerate

Yet another policy brief highlights what realists know:  Wisconsin policymakers are presiding over poor policy decisions that threaten to undermine taxpayers' decades-long investment in the state's human capital.

Far from saving our children from lifetimes of debt, those on the neoliberal Left and the conservative Right advocating for either "freeing" state universities from the limitations of state funding in pursuit of market models, or diminishing state spending in a time of austerity, are accomplishing the same goal:  driving up the costs of college attendance and reducing the overall educational attainment of our state's workers.

Forty years ago our grandparents elected officials who invested $14 per $1000 of personal income in higher education.  Today, we elect jokers who put in just $5.  What happened?

Figure courtesy of Tom Mortenson, Postsecondary Education Opportunity

Let's admit it: we aren't leaders anymore, we're laggards. Yes, Wisconsin pays taxes, but we throw away far too much of it on other things.  According to Figure 4 in the new report I referenced above, we rank 32nd thanks to the policy choice displayed above-- relative to per capita income, we are outspent by the likes of Mississippi, Alabama, and West Virginia, not to mention our neighbors Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Where is that money going instead? One simple word answers the question: corrections.  To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, we fought a War on Drugs, and drugs won-- but heck, we are still throwing our money at the problem.  Legacy spending, you might call it.   Over the last 10 years, spending on corrections went up 9%, while spending on k12 dropped by 6% and spending on higher education dropped 20%. Right, because clearly the goal of Wisconsin taxpayers is not to help educate our children, but rather to lock 'em up and shut 'em up.

For those who manage to avoid prison and get into college, instead of investing in their future, Wisconsin taxpayers seem to want their families to foot the bill. How's that working for us? Well, enrollment in our public institutions is lagging behind those in other states.  We have experienced far slower growth in fall enrollment as measured over both 5-year and 10-year periods, compared to the national average (see Table 6 here). Perhaps most startling is how little enrollment in our 2-year colleges has changed-- there was practically no change at all in enrollment there over the last 5 years (0.6%) while the national average was 16.7%! Perhaps not coincidentally, during that time, tuition and fees at the 2-years (already higher than the national average 5 years ago) rose by 20%.

I have to admit being persistently perplexed at how other parents throughout Wisconsin can sit idly by while we pour money intended for our kids into pits of despair like the state's correctional facilities.  It is far more cost-effective to educate rather than incarcerate.  It's time to make our policymakers do right by the limited dollars we have. Let's re-instate a real early release plan, and rollback the ridiculous "truth in sentencing" guidelines that lengthened parole time, greatly increasing the likelihood of being returned to prison. As UW-Madison expert Walter Dickey notes, there are numerous hidden costs to incarceration, and as state we simply can't afford to be in the corrections business.   

The best solution is to treat education as the crime-fighting technique it really is.  Providing young people with truly viable opportunities later in life gives them something to really aim for, helping keep them off the streets and on the job.  A recent UW-Madison graduate, economist Ben Cowan, finds that a $1,000 reduction in tuition and fees at two-year colleges is associated with a 26% decline in the number of sexual partners an adolescent has, and a 23% decline in number of days in the past month he used marijuana.  Policies that support affordable higher education may simultaneously support reductions in the costs of incarceration, in a virtuous cycle that is win-win for all.

This is pure common sense and we all know it.  It's simply time we demand that our "leaders" catch up.

A Color Filled Pear Room for Our Sweet Pair

For Iris and Sarah's 4th birthday, we decided to give them a more cheerful room.  Madeline saw Enzo Mari in one of my magazines and thought to paint her own version as their presents.  We are so pleased with the results.

Painting the red pear for Sarah, how personalized!

Our finished pears hung over our big kid beds (we formerly used floorbeds, this is a big step!)

Our toys and books.  We recently removed the letters, so that they are interesting and exciting at Montessori School this fall.

Our clothing drawers.

Art display, kid changeable.

Room view from my tip toes.  It's a small space, but we now have the room  for our individual treasures.   They love their new bedroom, hand made by Madeline (who was 5) and Mom!

Movie Afternoon: Popcorn with Cake Batter Milkshakes (recipe here!)

Today we are watching a movie to cool off.  The girls were super hot from playing outside all day, so we are enjoying a little treat.  The library is showing Sleeping Beauty, but too late to fit our bedtime.  Snuggle central.  Here we are!  Sharing here, as everyone knows Montessori kids love to cook...the measurements were so easy.

Cake Batter Milkshakes
(a copycat of the American Girl McKenna Bday Shake)
This is nut safe, for our Iris :)
4 scoops Hood Chocolate Chip  Ice cream
1cup milk (or soy/rice vanilla)
1 cup cake batter mix, we used white cake
4 tablespoons of colored sprinkles
Topped with whip cream, more sprinkles, and a tea cookie!  

Enjoying our creation, tastes just like the store!