New school-lunch rules produce complaints, more trash, efforts to repeal them

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the Obama administration's effort to mandate more fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains into the diets of school children, has some uphill climbing to do and it's not just the kids who are complaining. Though, admittedly, they were the first. Sarah Gonzales of Agri-Pulse took a look at some rural school districts trying to implement the law in advance of the law's implementation deadline, to see how the new science-based standards were working in real lunchrooms. What she found were complaints from student athletes who thought they needed more calories and more options, and substantial increases of good food thrown in the garbage. They also got this parody of "The Hunger Games" from some ingenious Kansas kids:

Dawn Matthews, director of food service for the rural Camdenton school district in Missouri, serves 3,200 school lunches every school day to kids in every grade level from K-12. The new standards, drawn from recommendations from an independent panel of doctors, nutritionists and other experts, require better nutrition and allow schools to serve between 550-650 calories for students in K-5, 600-700 calories of students for 6th through 8th grades, and 750-850 for high school lunches. Agri-Pulse reporters explain that a daily lunch costs $2.10, but almost 60 percent of the meals are offered for free for a reduced price in this rural district. Matthews notes that participation in the program is dropping with the new menu in place.

Urban kids don't like the lunches, either, reports Vivian Yee of The New York Times. (NYT photo by Librado Romero: A Manhattan school where seventh-graders called vegetables "gross.") Even before the deadline for the act to be put into effect, Gonzales notes, Reps. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kans., and Steve King, R-Iowa, introduced the No Hungry Kids Act last month to repeal the new school guidelines. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture also issued a recent policy statement saying the initial law was "well-intentioned, but falls short of providing a comprehensive policy for educating students in healthy living."

The results of the first few months of trial -- especially the waste -- have been "disheartening," said food director Matthews. It is also early. "I think it's going to evolve over time," said the chairman of Florida's Lake County School Board, Roseanne Brandeburg. "If you're in elementary school, and this is what you're going to be served, you're going to get used to it."

Agri-Pulse is subscription-only, but free trials are offered on its website.

Teachers from elsewhere give hope in Eastern Ky.

TFA's Liz Selden teaches math
(Photo by Amy Wallot, Ky. Dept. of Ed.)

Teach for America, which for 20 years has been placing top students from top colleges in low-income school districts, placed its first teachers in Appalachia only a year ago. The program is expanding, and now has 36 teachers in 20 schools in 11 Eastern Kentucky counties.

This relatively small group of young teachers in Eastern Kentucky is stirring hope that their sharp minds, youthful energy, diverse backgrounds and fresh perspectives will inspire their students, their colleagues, school officials and their communities to dream bigger dreams and achieve more of them, raising the region's education levels, attracting brighter students to teaching and boosting the chronically poor region's economy.

And because most of the traditional teachers in the 11 counties are natives who went to the nearest college, the coming of TFA has put traditional teacher-preparation programs under pressure to improve, and focused fresh attention on teacher quality and effectiveness.

All these topics and more are explored in four stories written for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues by its first iHigh writer in residence: John James Snidow, an Eastern Kentucky native who earned a Harvard University degree in economics with honors and is now at Yale Law School. To read the stories, click here.

Rural homeschooling increasing, for varied reasons

Homeschooling in the U.S. is on the rise in rural areas, and parents' reasons for the shift are varied, including educational excellence, practical training and religion, author Pamela Price reports for the Daily Yonder. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 1.5 million children were estimated to have been homeschooled in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, and at least one researcher estimated that number to have grown to 2 million in 2010.

The primary reason for homeschooling most commonly cited by NCES in 2007 was "a desire by parents to provide religious or moral instruction in tandem with traditional subjects." Other prevalent reasons included safety concerns, dissatisfaction with academic achievement in public schools, and special health concerns.

Homeschool Legal Defense Association senior counsel Scott Woodruff told Price that homeschooling is a popular option because of an increasing awareness that public schools are underperforming. "Many parents are saying, 'I'm going to take this, the education of my children, on myself," he said, adding that technology now gives parents more options for homeschooling. (Read more)

Study: Stress of poverty hurts kids' learning ability

A new theory, based on studies matching stress-hormone levels to behavioral and school readiness among children living in poverty, holds that such children have impaired learning abilities partly because of the "stresses of poverty," including crowded conditions, financial worry and lack of adequate child care. The theory is discussed in the September/October issue of Scientific American Mind.

New York University researcher Clancy Blair found that high levels of stress hormones "influence the developing circuity of children's brains, inhibiting such higher cognitive functions such as planning, impulse and emotional control and attention." Those abilities are "important for academic success." Finding ways to reduce poverty stressors in home and school environments could improve children's well being and help them be more academically successful, Blair says in a press release issued by the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study.

Monsanto giving $2.3 million to rural school districts

Monsanto, leading international producer of genetically engineered and herbicide-resistant seeds, announced this week it will give $2.3 million to rural schools during the 2012-2013 year through its "America's Farmers Grow Rural Education" program. The company is giving 176 rural school districts in 35 states grants of $10,000 to $25,000, which must be used for projects related to math and science.

Local farmers nominated the districts, and district officials completed online applications, Greta Weiderman of the St. Louis Business Journal reports. Math and science teachers from ineligible districts chose finalists, and a group of 26 prominent farmers across the country selected winners. (Read more) Click here to see if your local school district made the cut.

Rural districts face hurdles in applying for $400 million in federal Race to the Top grants

A little over two months remain for school districts to apply for $400 million in Race to the Top federal education grants. Michele McNeil of Education Week doubts that many rural districts will apply. "Not only is the 116-page application complex and demanding," she writes, but more than half the nation's districts are not eligible to apply on their own because their enrollments are too small. To apply, a district or a group of districts must have at least 2,000 students. Thus does the department continue to maintain its reputation as heavily favoring large, urban districts like the one in Chicago that was run by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

"The latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 47 percent of the nation's school districts had fewer than 1,000 students in 2009-10, McNeil writes. "Another 24 percent had between 1,000 and 2,499 students. . . . More than half of the nation's schools have fewer than 2,000 kids. And so these districts already face big hurdles in applying for the money." (Read more)

Is your district applying? Why or why not?

UPDATE, Aug. 20: The Department of Education will hold a webinar for potential applicants from noon to 3 p.m. ET. Space is limited, registration is required, and preference is given to school districts. Perhaps your district would let you sit in. For more information, click here.

As the nation's population shifts, Midwest's schools shrink and communities suffer

As more Americans have left Midwestern communities in recent years, those places have lost the vitality and life of more than 2,100 public schools. As a result, Steve Rich of USA Today reports, school districts and whole communities have scrambled to survive. From 2006-07 and 2010-2011, according to a USA Today analysis of U.S. Department of Education data, the population gains were largely in California, Texas and Arizona, which added 1,133 schools.

The loss is not just physical. The mass closings, which often see students moved to other buildings in a district, can affect home prices and businesses and often take an emotional toll on residents. "It's like losing the soul of the community," said Terry Ryan, vice president for Ohio Programs & Policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a center focused on education.

Further analysis of the data, writes Rich, found much of the Midwest's school loss came in three states: Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. The schools that closed during the five years studied had served nearly 1.5 million students. 
(Read more)

As schools prepare to follow new federal lunch rules, fruit and vegetable snack program up for debate

Bloomberg photo by Ian Waldie

As students and teachers return to school, food-service directors are working to implement the new federal school lunch regulations that take effect Oct. 1 -- a story for any local news outlet, since it affects almost every student.

Meanwhile, another school food program is up for debate. Congress is deciding whether frozen, canned and dried produce should be included in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. House Republicans say yes, to save money and make a wider range of options available year round. But the Senate is pushing to keep the program limited to fresh fruit and vegetables only. The argument — or food fight, as Dina ElBoghdady of The Washington Post calls it — has trade and other groups weighing in.

"If the goal is to expand and improve upon childhood nutrition, it doesn't make sense to limit the kinds of fruit and vegetables that schools serve," said Corey Henry, a spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute. "Let the schools decide." But Sandi Kaur, acting director of nutrition services at the California Department of Education, disagrees, saying "it's the fresh that makes this program unique."

The program allows schools to distribute fresh fruit and vegetables as snacks to students and has "raised consumption in participating schools by a quarter-cup per day, or 15 percent," ElBoghdady reports. "The increase did not contribute to weight gain, suggesting that the fruit and vegetables replaced other foods." Last year, USDA spent $150 million to pay for the snacks for 3 million children. (Read more)

Physician group wants milk out of school lunches

A nonprofit group that promotes a vegan diet is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to recommend that Congress remove milk from school lunches because it is contributing to childhood obesity. (Photo by Kathleen Flynn, Tampa Bay Times)

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine calls milk an "ineffective placebo" and says a large body of research shows that drinking dairy milk doesn't improve bone health or prevent fractures in children. The group also says milk is "the number one source of saturated fat in children's diets," Feedstuffs reports. "We are asking Congress and the USDA to put children's interests above the interests of the dairy industry," said Susan Levin, PCRM's nutrition education director. She said focusing on milk as the most important source of calcium in children's diets "distracts schools and parents from foods that can actually build bones, like beans and leafy greens."

National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jerry Kozak said in a statement, "Milk is the single largest contributor of nutrients in kids' diets," including calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein and vitamins A, D and B12. (Read more)

Got marquee? This arts idea is downright poetic

Many a small town worth its salt has a movie theater marquee waiting for some terrific homebred poetry to entertain and enlighten the masses, and an arts alliance in need of a good community involvement idea. Thanks to some bright folks in Stevens Point, Wis., and to the marquee value of having a daily blog as well-read as the Daily Yonder, here it is: The Haiku Marquee Project, in which the state's student body -- from pre-school to high school -- has been asked to submit haikus for display at the town's Fox Theater this fall. (Yonder photo)

Reads the release in the Stevens Point Journal: "This is a cooperative venture between the Arts Alliance of Portage County, the Sanders family, which owns the Fox Theater, and the Woodrow Hall Jumpstart Award. The two haiku will be posted on the marquee each month, and 10 honorable-mention poems will be displayed in the Fox Theater show window. Haiku should consist of three lines and no more than 17 syllables. Poems must be the original work of the poet."

Qualified? Interested? Poets may submit no more than three haiku to: Haiku Marquee, Fox Theater, 1124 Main St., Stevens Point, WI 54481; or email them to jimpollock@charter.net. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 14. Include your name, address, phone number and, if you are a student, grade level.

Study: Rural schools employ more new teachers, who are usually less effective in the classroom

Schools in rural and poor areas, as well as those with a high number of minority students, employ a higher percentage of beginning teachers than schools without those characteristics, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. (Boomer Highway blog photo)

The research shines a light on a conundrum known to most educators: The first years of one’s teaching career provide vast opportunities for professional growth, but new teachers have fewer experiences to draw on in plan­ning lessons, managing classrooms and creating assessment strategies.

Thus, authors Douglas Gagnon and Marybeth Mattingly write, "Beginning teachers are typically less effective than their more experienced colleagues, as mea­sured by student achievement gains. In addition, beginning teachers are more likely to leave the profession than those who have weathered at least a few years in the classroom. Thus, employing a large percentage of beginning teachers is costly both to a district and students."

The inescapable conclusion: The percentage of beginning teachers is an important dimension of school quality. Gagnon is a doctoral candidate in education at the University of New Hampshire and research assistant at the Carsey Institute, and Mattingly is director of research on vulnerable families at Carsey and research assistant professor of sociology at UNH.

GAO suggests more clarity, oversight in use of funds sent to counties with federal lands

In rural counties with federal lands, a share of the revenues from the sale or use of the natural resources on that land came back to the counties. So when Western counties dependent on federal timber revenue steeply declined in the 1990s, Congress passed a law to provide for roads and schools in rural counties. In 2008 it allowed those counties to use the funds to protect themselves from the threat of catastrophic wildfire and provide emergency services on federal lands.

Now the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, has found that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have provided little oversight of that program, and the counties, given vague guidelines on how to use the money, have used it on projects that appear inconsistent with federal law and failed to properly disclose their spending to the public. The GAO contacted 44 counties in 22 states across the nation.

The Secure Rural Schools Act, which was recently reauthorized for one year as part of the transportation bill passed in late June, is now under review to be renewed for another five years. In a letter to New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the GAO reported that since 2008 the law has provided more than $2 billion in federal assistance, with more than 350 counties receiving $108 million for fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2011, with individual counties receiving anywhere from $3,600 to more than $2 million a year.

The GAO's recommendations to Bingaman and to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources included regulations and clearer guidance so counties can make better funding decisions. In addition, Congress should consider revising the law to clarify whst types of projects are allowable under the act. (Read the GAO report)

Weekly editors' group gives top awards to publisher from South Dakota, editor from Nova Scotia

The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors concluded its annual conference last weekend at Western Washington University in Bellingham by giving one of its stalwarts the organization's top award and recognizing some of the best editorial writing in weeklies in 2011.

Tim Waltner, publisher of the Freeman Courier in South Dakota, won the Eugene Cervi Award, which honors an editor who has consistently acted in the conviction that good journalism begets good government, and for adhering to the highest standards of the craft. Waltner became editor of the Courier in 1977, and he bought it in 1984. His son Jeremy is now editor, and both of them have been president of ISWNE. "I strongly believe that aggressive but fair news reporting and bold opinion writing are at the heart of the mission of a community newspaper," he said in response to the award, named for the late editor of the old Rocky Mountain Journal. Waltner is on the advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog.

The Summer 2012 edition of Grassroots Editor, the organization's quarterly, has six tributes to Waltner and copies of every award-winning editorial in its annual Golden Quill editorial contest, in which a winner and a Golden Dozen are honored. This year's Golden Quill went to Vernon Oickle of the Lunenberg County Progress Bulletin of Nova Scotia, who "spent months digging into why and how the local school board failed to inform the public about its review process on potential school closures and ignored its duty to engage the public in discussion about the issue," the citation says. "It took months to get the relevant emails and the board wanted to charge hundreds of dollars for the records. The paper prevailed and did not have to pay for the information because the emails were of vital public interest. The outcome of Oickle’s battle was that the board was fired by the Department of Education. Additionally, the provincial legislature created additional powers for the minister of education to review and remove school boards." The quarterly has a full account from Oickle.

The Golden Quill winners were Melissa Hale-Spencer of the Altamont Enterprise in New York; Paul MacNeill, publisher of the Eastern Graphic on Prince Edward Island; Missy Layfield of the Island Sand Paper in Fort Myers Beach, Fla.; Ross Connelly of The Hardwick Gazette in Vermont; Robert Trapp of the Rio Grande Sun in Española, N.M.; George Brown of the Ponoka News in Alberta; Peter Weinschenk of The Record-Review in Abbotsford, Wis.; Mo Mehlsak of The Forecaster in Falmouth, Maine; Jim Painter of the West Valley View in Avondale, Ariz.; Joan Plaxton of The Valleyview Valley News in Valleyview, Alberta; and David Giffey, former editor of the Home News in Spring Green, Wis.

School board, ACLU compromise on Commandments display by using history book page

In what could become a model for other rural school districts, a compromise has been made in Virginia concerning display of the Ten Commandments. Richard Simon of the Los Angeles Times reports a page from a history textbook which shows the commandment tablets and credits the religious text as playing a role in the "roots of democracy" will replace a framed copy of the commandments in a high school in Giles County (Wikipedia map).

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sued the school board, alleging violation of the separation of church and state, but applauded the compromise. The textbook page is titled "Roots of Democracy," shows the tablets and states: "The values found in the Bible, including the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus, inspired American ideas about government and morality." It also lists other influences on America, including Greek democracy and the Magna Carta.

Though the Liberty Counsel, which represented the school board, was also happy with the compromise, it must be approved by a federal judge. (Read more)

Congress continues federal timber payments

Federal payments to counties with national forest land will be extended after Congress voted to approve a transportation bill last week, that will also prevent student loan rates from doubling and save 2.8 million jobs by funding road and bridge projects across the country. The $100 million extension of timber payments will be a boon to rural counties that contain a high percentage of federal forest land and property, the leading example being Oregon.

The timing of the passage was "critical" for Oregon counties that have relied on timber payments, Charles Pope of The Oregonian reports, because most counties' fiscal year ends June 30. Without the extension, they would have been forced to close jails, schools, law off police officers and teachers and cut back essential services, including EMS, Pope writes. Lawmakers will use the year to discuss possible alternatives for the payments, which can be costly. (Read more)

Rural principal, urban school executive set webinar on implementing new Common Core Standards

The principal of a rural high school in the middle of the country will be one of two presenters in a July 11 webinar on how local schools can implement the new Common Core Standards for education. Tracey Lamb, principal of Fulton County High School in Hickman, Ky., on the Mississippi River, will present along with Steve Gering, chief leadership officer of the Chicago Public Schools.

The webinar, from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT, is sponsored by Education Week and the Success for All Foundation, and is further underwritten by The Wallace Foundation. It will be moderated by Catherine Gewertz, assistant editor of Education Week. The webinar is free but registration is required. Fore more information and a link to registration, click here.

Agriculture professor says land-grant schools have lost sight of "people's university" mission

The 150th anniversary of the creation of the Public Land-Grant University System through the Morrill Act is this Tuesday, July 2. Public land-grant universities have made innumerable contributions to the people in states where they exist, establishing a rich heritage that will be celebrated next week in Washington, D.C. with a convocation. The problem, says Auburn University agriculture professor C. Robert Taylor, is that "common people," which land-grant universities were created to help, are "glaringly absent from the invitation list."

"Land Grant universities were intended to be the 'People's Universities,'" Taylor writes for the Daily Yonder, "with a three part mission of teaching, research and service for common people, ordinary people, the working class, the middle class in American society. People like me." He said he thinks land-grant universities are drifting away from their mission of helping and educating "common people," and the celebration in Washington highlights "symptoms of a serious disease organism," one that he hopes isn't "incurable."

Taylor says the U.S. population has shifted from mostly agrarian to mostly urban over 150 years, and he questions whether the needs of people today are the same as then, but ultimately concludes that what matters most for next week's celebration is that none of the "new people" will be represented. It's troubling for him, he writes, because the convocation will feature discussions to help set the agenda for land-grant schools for the next 150 years.

"Truth is," Taylor writes, "that elites in government and business have been increasingly influencing and often subtly setting the agenda -- especially the research agenda -- in land-grant universities for some time." He says cuts in extension funding over the years have caused a decrease in public support for land-grant schools, which was exacerbated by faculty turning inward and only conducting research and writing papers for peers instead of connecting with the public. (Read more)

Five more states get No Child Left Behind waivers

Five additional states have received waivers from the federal government from key parts of the No Child Left Behind Act. They are Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Utah, making the total number of states with waivers 24, with 13 more states and Washington, D.C. waiting for approval.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a conference call today that "these states have joined in a nationwide movement toward state-led education reform," and that "their plans are the product of bold, forward-thinking state and local leaders who have moved beyond the tired old battle and partisan bickering to roll up their sleeves and start working together." He also said that the leadership displayed in these states has been "simply remarkable," and prove that more leaders are taking a "much more holistic and comprehensive view of college and career readiness" that is moving beyond a test-driven assessment system.

Rural schools still lag in installing online technology

Rural elementary and high schools have long had to be leaders in distance learning and online education to offer some courses, but they still face challenges such as small size and budgets when trying to put technology inside the classroom. States and school districts across the country are trying several initiatives to get more technology into rural classrooms to bridge a gap in rural and urban technological access.

Some states have started programs to provide technology opportunities to rural districts, reports Sarah Butrymowicz of The Hechinger Report. In Maine, every student gets a laptop, and all school districts have to offer Advanced Placement classes in Alabama through distance learning. Some districts, though, can't afford to provide such technology, and have turned to other sources for funding. In Edison, Colo., the school district supplemented its technology programs with a $10,000 grant from the Denver-based Morgridge Family Foundation.

Only 57 percent of rural households had broadband Internet access in 2010, compared to 72 percent in urban areas, Butrymowicz reports, and Alliance for Excellent Education president, and former West Virginia governor, Bob Wise, told Butrymowicz that technology "could be rural schools' saving grace" and turn them into "renewed learning centers." (Read more)

Growers of cranberries, which need sugar for sales, fear possible exclusion from schools

The federal government is expected to propose new nutrition standards soon that worry cranberry growers from Massachusetts to Wisconsin and into Canada. The effort, urged on by first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative, is the Department of Agriculture's likely new guidelines for what can be sold in school vending machines, stores and cafeteria lines. Sugar is the target, writes Larry Bivins of USA Today, and sweetened beverages like cranberry juice cocktail could be deemed unhealthy because the berry is not popular without some sort of sweetener added. That would be unfortunate and unfair, cranberry industry officials say, because the tart, deep-red fruit is loaded with nutrients and health benefits. But for consumers to avail themselves of those benefits, cranberries must be palatable. "Cranberries can be sweetened with anything," said Linda Prehn, a cranberry grower in Tomah, Wis., citing apple juice as an example. (Associated Press photo of Massachusetts cranberry worker Miguel Sandel)

Prehn, chairman of United Cranberry Growers Cooperative, a collective of 85 growers in Massachusetts, Oregon and Wisconsin in the U.S. and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec, was among cranberry honchos attending the recent inaugural meeting of the Congressional Cranberry Caucus on Capitol Hill. Prehn and others are hoping the bipartisan caucus led by Reps. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., and Bill Keating, D-Mass., and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Scott Brown, R-Mass., can help persuade agriculture officials to make an exception for cranberry products in its nutrition standards for added-sugar products.

"Given the beneficial and scientifically proven health properties of cranberries, we believe there is a need to establish clear standards that recognize cranberries as a part of a healthy diet," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The lawmakers sent a similar letter to the first lady, pointing out cranberries "contribute to whole body health, particularly urinary-tract health and the potential to fight cancer and other diseases." At stake is exclusion from an estimated $2.3 billion school vending-machine business and an image that could have a negative impact on the marketing of cranberry products worldwide, particularly cranberry juice cocktail, industry officials say.