[CALIBK12] Comment posted on an Ed Week blog: How about libraries?

[Richard Moore]

doing the math:



$1500 per child



x 6 million CA K-12



=  $9 billion dollars



earning a modest 5%:



$450,000,000 / year



which would pay salary and benefits for 4500 LMTs in half CA's schools



and would bring us to about 30th place nationally…….. (1000 students per LMT)





then we need to buy the books..........;-)







 





 


 Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa
Huntington Beach, CA
**********************************************************
To be educated in any true sense of the word, one must use the
 library, and master the experiences of mankind. -- William T. Harris, 1893
*************************************************************

 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Krashen <skrashen at yahoo.com>
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Sent: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:07 pm
Subject: [CALIBK12] Comment posted on an Ed Week blog: How about libraries?










A comment on an Ed Week Blog

NCLB: Act II, 
David Hoff
July 22, 2008
Extra Time: Is It the Solution for Raising Achievement?

With the goal of dramatically improving student achievement, many people are 
asking: What can schools do?

Offer extra time, some say.

Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released two reports on the topic. 
In one, Elana Rocha gives a sample of what more than 300 districts have done to 
expand learning time. In the other, Marguerite Roza and Karen Hawley Miles 
explain how districts can pay for such projects.0A
At a session discussing the reports, a key aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., 
said on Monday that there may be federal help on the way. This week, Sen. 
Kennedy plans to introduce a bill that would authorize grants to states to 
support districts' efforts to increase learning time, said Carmel Martin, the 
general counsel for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

The program would authorize $150 million a year for the grants. District grants 
would add between $1,200 and $1,400 per pupil in districts (about what 
Massachusetts districts are given to expand learning time in a private-public 
program). States would need to match the federal dollars. The authorization 
would grow over the five-year life of the bill.

The object, Martin said, is to "get this seeded throughout the country and have 
people trying different models that we can study."

The program may have the added benefit of answering the critics' assertion that 
NCLB has narrowed the curriculum, particularly in high-poverty schools, she 
added.

The program could give students "more time on task to reach high standards ... 
without sacrificing art, music, and other enrichment activities," Martin said.





http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/NCLB-ActII/

Comment. 

Stephen Krashen

How about doing the obvious first – how about more money for libraries?  Studies 
show that children of poverty have very little access to books, given access 
most children read, and when they read their reading, writing, spelli
ng, grammar 
and vocabulary get better. And of course we know that children of poverty score 
lowest on reading tests.  Gerald Bracey has shown that when we control for 
poverty, American children look good on international reading tests: Poverty IS 
the problem.

Our recent research (with Syying Lee and Jeff McQuillan) shows that library 
quality is a significant predictor of reading test scores, even when we control 
for poverty.  This is true in the US (NAEP scores) and is true of the PIRLS 
test, given fourth graders in 40 different countries.

Clearly, children of poverty need more access to books.  

The research is overwhelming. Yet we are always ready to consider any other 
possibility other than libraries. 

The feds just announced grants totaling $18.2 million for school libraries in 
high poverty areas. There are about 13 million children in poverty – that's less 
than $1.50 per child. 

At the same time, we have wasted 6 billion on Reading First, with no positive 
results, and we are now ready to spend up to $1500 per child into extending the 
school day. The sum of $1500 per child, invested properly, enough interest to 
support and improve school libraries in high-poverty areas forever, and help end 
our literacy problem once and for all.  






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