Teachers are warning about the risks of pupils staying up late at night and then relying on a boost from energy drinks before school the next morning.

They say it can mean an initial burst of hyperactivity and then an “inevitable crash” later in the day.

Teachers’ union leader Chris Keates said a “significant number” of school staff had concerns over energy drinks.

The British Soft Drinks Association said teachers must decide “what pupils are allowed to take into school”.

The NASUWT teachers’ union’s annual conference in Cardiff will hear warnings about the “negative impact” of energy drinks on pupils’ behaviour.

‘Consume in moderation’

They will raise concerns that “high levels of caffeine and sugar” are disrupting pupils’ ability to concentrate and behave well in class.

Ms Keates says teachers have warned of pupils staying up into the early hours of the morning and then drinking several cans of energy drinks on the way to school the next day.

After a phase of hyperactivity and poor concentration, she says pupils “crash later in the day when the impact of these drinks wears off”.

“These drinks are becoming increasingly popular among young people and are often seen as simply like any other soft drink, but many young people and their parents are not aware of the very high levels of stimulants that these drinks contain,” said the NASUWT leader.

But Gavin Partington, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, said: “It’s worth remembering that coffees from popular high street chains contain the same or more caffeine than most energy drinks.

“However, like all food and drink, energy drinks should be consumed in moderation and as part of a balanced diet.”

Mr Partington said his association’s code of practice says high caffeine soft drinks are not recommended for children, and high caffeine content drinks should not be promoted or marketed to children.

‘Email intrusion’

The teachers’ union conference will also hear concerns of “home invasion” and “email intrusion” from staff who complain they are receiving too many work-related emails outside of school hours.

Many staff say they are expected to respond to work emails in evenings and weekends, including from parents and pupils, and some reported being expected to answer work emails when they were on sick leave.

“It is unacceptable that teachers at home or when they are ill or on leave continue to be bombarded with emails at all times of the day and night,” said Ms Keates.

via Teachers’ ‘hyperactive pupils’ energy drink warning – BBC News.

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By Courtney Boswell, Executive Director, Texas Institute for Education Reform

Nobody can top the late, great Dr. Seuss when it comes to expressing the importance of being able to read: “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

The opposite is also true. As a 1999 report from the American Federation of Teachers put it, “Any child who doesn’t learn to read early and well will not easily master other skills and knowledge and is unlikely to ever flourish in school or life.”

Research shows that the vast majority of first graders who struggle with reading remain weak readers throughout the rest of their years in school. Moreover, children who are not reading well by third grade are four times more likely to eventually drop out of school, which in turn has devastating consequences for their future employment, earnings, and other aspects of life.  In short, there are few happy endings for kids who don’t learn how to read early and well.

The tragedy is that this fate is far too common. Only 28 percent of Texas fourth graders performed at or above the proficient level on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), about the same as a decade ago. And the average reading score for Texas fourth graders is lower than the scores for 30 other states and jurisdictions.

Some might be tempted to attribute these results to poverty or language barriers, but the reality is much more complicated. In fact, only half of the economically advantaged kids in Texas are proficient readers, and high percentages of Texas community college students from all income and racial-ethnic groups require remediation in reading.  The question is, why?

The problem is not due to a lack of know-how. We know from research that almost everyone can learn to read well, though only about 20 percent of children learn to read quickly and easily; the rest experience significant or severe challenges along the way.

Research also provides clear direction on the most effective ways to teach reading and writing. We know, for example, that most children need to be taught to read in a systematic way so that they can master increasingly complex texts and gain fluency.

“Policy makers already have the theory and evidence to guide the implementation of effective reading programs from K-12. The central problem stems not from the absence of a research base but from willful indifference to what the research has consistently shown,” said University of Arkansas’ Professor of Education Reform Sandra Stotsky.

What do we need to do differently? Dramatically expanding access to high-quality early childhood education is a good place to start. Every child deserves the opportunity to develop the foundational skills and social behaviors that are crucial to their success in kindergarten and beyond.

Without such opportunities, children fall behind from the beginning and never catch up. Research by economist James Heckman and others shows persuasively that investments in early education for low-income children yield an array of long-term dividends, both personal and economic.

But simply broadening access to early childhood education is not enough. Although many school districts have, commendably, expanded their Pre-K programs in recent years, these programs are often understaffed and lack the kinds of scientifically based early literacy instruction that young children need to be ready for kindergarten. We must therefore ensure that all children, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds, have access to early childhood programs that include an explicit focus on developing early literacy skills.

What else do we need to do? We need to raise standards for reading proficiency in the early grades (PreK-2) and incorporate early reading measures into the school accountability system.

We need to require all schools to provide effective reading programs for all students in every grade, PreK-12. We also need to do a much better job of identifying struggling readers early and connecting them with the intensive help they need, rather than waiting until they are so far off track that it is nearly impossible for them to catch up.

We need to ensure that every teacher preparation program knows how to teach prospective teachers how to teach reading and is held accountable for results. We need to base accreditation of PreK-8 teacher preparation programs on the value they add to students’ reading performance.

We need to ensure that state certification tests evaluate teachers’ knowledge of reading science, including a stand-alone test for those who teach reading. Once teachers are in the classroom, we need to provide ongoing training focused on science-based reading instruction and rigorously evaluate that training to determine its efficacy.

Other states have been taking bold for reform. The new Read to Succeed Act adopted in South Carolina will provide for early literacy assessments for pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners, early interventions for struggling readers, a new statewide office to help school districts develop rigorous reading standards and improve reading outcomes, and a new certification process for reading coaches, among other measures.

It is time for Texas leaders to take bold steps too. Our state’s future will depend a great deal on how well we do in teaching our children to read. Through research, we know how to equip all of our young people to become proficient readers. The challenge is to put that knowledge to use so that every child in Texas has the opportunity to be successful in school and in life.

(See the policy paper recently released by TIER, “Addressing the Reading Crisis in Texas Public Schools: An Agenda for Success”, at www.texaseducationreform.org.)

Guest Essay: Time to Get Serious About the Texas Reading Crisis.

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And that may not be such a bad thing after all.

Bourree Lam –

Last week, critics of for-profit colleges rejoiced at the news that University of Phoenix’s enrollment numbers have dropped by nearly 50 percent in the last five years. Revenues are down 14 percent, and last year the institution shut down 115 of its physical locations and laid off 800 employees. The university’s owners announced it will relocate staff from its San Francisco office in a consolidation effort.

The University of Phoenix is the largest for-profit university in the U.S. For-profit educations are mistrusted and harshly criticized for charging prices higher than those of public institutions, yet providing lackluster outcomes for their students. Worse are the reports about their questionable marketing and recruiting practices including reports of recruiters and admission officers misleading students. A lawsuit against Premier Education Group by a former employee alleged that its for-profit schools falsified records to keep federal money coming in.

Is the end near for the University of Phoenix and its for-profit brethren? Likely not. Even though for-profit colleges across the country have seen a slight drop in students in the past few years, enrollment at these schools is still quite high relative to what it was decades ago. Consider that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, undergraduate enrollment at private for-profit colleges increased by 634 percent between 1990 and 2012. In contrast, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment at for-profit four-year programs dropped by 9.7 percent from 2012 to 2013, and by just 0.4 percent from 2013 to 2014.

via For-Profit Colleges: Here to Stay — The Atlantic.

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DENVER (AP) — Like many sojourners to this country, Alejandro Fuentes Mena lives with uncertainty as U.S. immigration policy is debated in the courts, Congress and the White House. But as he awaits a final ruling on his own future, he’s helping other young people build their dreams.

Fuentes, who settled in the United States illegally as a child, is a Denver elementary school teacher under a pilot program that recruits young immigrants like him to teach disadvantaged students. Teach for America, a national nonprofit running the program, believes people like Fuentes can be role models for students.

Fuentes, 23, has applied for a work permit and reprieve from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a presidential order. Recipients of deferred action, like Fuentes, are also known as DREAMers.

Fuentes wasn’t directly affected by a judicial order this year that stopped the White House from expanding the number of immigrants who could remain in the country temporarily. But it left him worried. “If they overturn this part of immigration reform, will they go back and overturn other parts?” he said.

In the meantime, the Teach for America program he’s involved in has grown from two teachers in Denver, where it was launched last year, to 40 teachers in classrooms across the country, including Arizona, California and New Mexico. Denver’s 11 instructors with DACA status comprise the largest group. Teach for America plans to create more opportunities for immigrants like Fuentes.

The organization has been recruiting and training teachers since 1989 with the goal of helping disadvantaged students by encouraging bright college graduates to teach them.

Sean VanBerschot, Teach for America’s executive director in Colorado, said the Denver Public Schools district was the right place for DREAMer teachers because of its commitment to closing an achievement gap between white students and students of other races. More than 87,000 students, nearly two-thirds of them Hispanic and a third of them English-language learners, are enrolled in Denver public schools.

“Some of our greatest demand is for strong bilingual teachers,” said Shayne Spalten, chief human resources officer for Denver Public Schools. “In the past, we have had to do extensive recruitment internationally and nationally to try and meet this demand. These (DREAMer) teachers bring an extraordinary commitment to teaching and life experiences that are similar to the experiences of many of our students.”

Critics question whether Teach for America’s five-week training course leaves candidates unprepared for the classroom and discouraged from making teaching a career. Candidates commit to two years’ teaching.

Keri Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association teachers’ union, said one thing Teach for America does “exceptionally well is recruit quality candidates. But if those high quality candidates don’t stay in the classroom beyond two years, then we really haven’t solved the problem.”

Denver’s initiative has inspired other districts to look at DREAMers. In Colorado’s Eagle County, home to Vail, Superintendent Jason Glass is considering hiring teachers with DACA status. Half the district’s 6,800 public school students are Hispanic, and 40 percent are learning English.

“Denver definitely put the idea in our heads,” Glass said.

Fuentes was a toddler in Valparaiso, Chile, when his mother set off for the United States. He was 4 when he joined her in San Diego, and he grew up in the U.S. without legal status. At times, the family was homeless as his mother and stepfather worked for low wages building homes, packing fruit and caring for children and the elderly.

Fuentes remembers feeling hopeless in his last year of high school in California. He had an A-minus average, but his immigration status put many college scholarships out of reach. A teacher encouraged him to persevere. He secured a full scholarship and, as he prepared to graduate with a psychology degree from Whitman College, the first DACA order was announced.

Fuentes began teaching English in a low-income Denver neighborhood and saw a need for what he could offer.

When he first shared his life story with his fifth-graders, one put in extra effort on a writing assignment, saying, “‘I decided that I was going to push myself further,’” Fuentes said.

via Denver schools take lead in hiring DREAMer teachers.

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By Frederick Hess –

This is one of the queries I heard most often when interviewing teachers for The Cage-Busting Teacher or just when talking about the issue of educators, public officials, and education policy. After all, talented educators regularly share their frustrations with this accountability system or that approach to teacher evaluation. They bemoan politicians who won’t spend enough on schools, listen to them, or ask their advice. They ask why policymakers don’t mind their own business and let educators run the schools. What they’re ignoring is that those officials are responsible to all those millions of registered voters—and their kids.

I get the frustration. It’s understandable, especially when teachers are knocking themselves out and doing their best. There’s a sense that a bunch of talkers and dilettantes are giving marching orders to the people who actually do the work. These are fair and valid concerns.

But I tell those teachers to fight past their initial impulses and to look with fresh eyes in order to see how things look to those policymakers. After all, public schools spend public dollars and hire public employees to serve the public’s children. For better or worse, they’re going to be governed by public officials. Those officials are going to set the policies that shape what educators can and can’t do, how money is spent, how performance will be judged, who can be hired, and how children will be served.

Now, you may say, “Hold up. Public officials haven’t always done it this way.” Well, that’s actually incorrect. They always have. (Back in 1986, the National Governors Association declared in its influential report, A Time for Results, “To sum it up: the Governors are ready for some old-fashioned horse-trading. We’ll regulate less if schools and school districts will produce better results.”) The reason that policy today feels more invasive is because policymakers have been convinced that the old rules and regulations weren’t getting the job done. So, they’ve adopted new policies around accountability, teacher evaluation, and the rest in an attempt to make sure kids are well-served and public funds are well-spent.

Think about it like this. If you were an elected official and responsible for schools where only half of kids were reading at grade level, you might very well think you ought to do something about it. Now, that doesn’t mean your response would help. It could easily be wrong-headed. But cage-busters appreciate that policymakers aren’t acting out of malice.

If you’re wondering why people who aren’t experts on schooling get to make policy, it’s simple: they’re elected. You can wish that educators were free to spend public funds and run public schools as they see fit. But that’s not how “the system” works. In any event, you can only make that argument if you also think police should be free to make up criminal law, doctors and pharmaceutical representatives to dictate health policy, and bankers to regulate banking. Otherwise, if you want a say in things like foreign policy, health care, or financial regulation, then you need to be prepared to live by those same rules. Cage-busters are more inclined to deal with this state of affairs than to complain about it.

How does one go about “dealing with it”? Well, a little later in the week, we’ll discuss some tips. Of course, if you’re interested in the extended version, go check out the book.

via Why Can’t Politicians Get Out of Schooling? – Education Next : Education Next.

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The Common Core method has many parents concerned. Complaints range from “it’s too focused on understanding the steps instead of getting the right answer” to “it’s too complicated, I can’t even help my kids with their homework.”

But the way math was taught before Common Core was not always the only way. When the so-called “New Math” was introduced in the 1960s it was met with much of the same criticism Common Core is facing today.

via Common Core subtraction math controversy – Business Insider.

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