Hamilton International Scholars Program (HISP)

Last Thursday, Dr. Alston wrote Education Matters: Hamilton International Scholars Program (Proposal)

At the next Hamilton Board of Education meeting, March 10, 2016, I will present a proposal for the Hamilton Central School District to host tuition paying students from across the world. The title of this program is the Hamilton International Scholars Program (HISP). The Board of Education will seek input concerning HISP. ... The meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Hamilton Central School and begin at 6 PM...

And he says that the "model we are proposing" is seen at Great Work Stories: Newcomb School - YouTube

Published on Aug 28, 2013
How do you expand a shrinking public school in the middle of nowhere? When Skip Hults became superintendent of Newcomb Central School in the heart of Adirondack Park, he inherited a tradition of excellence, a talented faculty, a supportive community, and 55 kids to fill 350 seats. It was a case of grow or die. But how do you grow a school?

Yesterday Radio Free Hamilton reported Dr. Alston's announcement at HCS considers plan to attract foreign students Thursday, again with the August 2013 video. Hults started his program in 2006; it's still going on. It happens that in December 2013, I wrote about this as a possibility for HCS at HamiltonCentralOptions: International Students

No single proposal will solve any district's problems; we're looking for proposals which have helped other districts with low enrollment, both in and out of New York State. One is quite simple: it turns out that students from a variety of nations would like to spend a year or two of high school in the United States...

and among other links, I gave Rural Leader Buoys School With Foreign Students - Education Week

Recruiting tuition-paying international students has saved the school by bolstering its finances and population, and it's changed its culture by exposing Newcomb students to diverse heritages and languages. It's also redefined the meaning of "family" to the many residents who have hosted visiting international students.
"I believe this has the potential to become a rural norm," Hults says. "It's a win-win."

A few days later I wrote HamiltonCentralOptions: Appealing to International Students

I posted on the possibility that appealing to international students could have financial, academic, and cultural benefits for the school (and quite possibly for schools nearby, as one case where we might share benefits as well as costs). I'd like to say a little more about that.
One interesting question: why would students from China want to come to American schools?...

The following month I reported on a meeting where it was discussed, at HamiltonCentralOptions: 2014-15 Budget Process --- Join In!

Astrid brought this up at the meeting and Diana replied that HCS did indeed go through the "accreditation" process with Homeland Security so we are "SEVIS-certified"; indeed we are on page 108 of last June's official list at DHS and we can accept foreign students with "F" visas, although not "M" visas. See ...
And Clinton High School went through this in 2004 but may have dropped it, their website doesn't mention it....

That April, after another meeting, I wrote HamiltonCentralOptions: Pretty Good News from April 8 "Community Leaders/Fiscal" Meeting

Astonishingly, this could happen next year and could add another $70K--$100K to the budget. (The tuition may be less than the average cost of educating an HCS student, but is far more than the marginal cost; it's mostly "profit".) ...

Update: notes from other attendees: Susan Marafino adds

I mentioned that [Carolyn Hsu] would be a good person to be involved with the potential exchange student program...

All that is from late 2013 and early 2014, when Newcomb was in the news. There had of course been earlier reports and videos, including this Newcom February 2010 "welcome" video in Russian, showing a bit about how hard they were trying: A Newcomb Welcome.mpg - YouTube

A video introducing the Newcomb Central School community to our friends from Russia....

Then there was the Channel One report in 2011: Channel One News: Newcomb High School - YouTube

Oct 26, 2011
This New York school welcomes int'l students that enhance education.

Nowadays, the Newcomb School top page links to a USA Today story from the same period (February 2014): Public schools recruiting international high schoolers

Perhaps more significant for Newcomb: Students like Ipek have attracted more local kids, drawn by the prospect of a more comprehensive, global education. As a result, the school has doubled in size since 2007 to 109 students. Only 18 of those are international — the rest are local students who heard about the program and moved into the district to be part of it. They also were attracted by a partnership with local colleges that helps them earn credits before they graduate.

That partnership aspect continues today: Paul Smith's, Newcomb team up | Paul Smith's College

Paul Smith's College is partnering with Newcomb Central School this fall on a new advanced studies program....

Of course HCS does have rather an advantage in the local-colleges department.

Out of Basement Readiness

A note from Yong Zhao at the beginning of this month: Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » College Ready vs. Out-of-Basement Ready: Shifting the Education Paradigm

The Common Core and most education reforms around the world define the outcome of schooling as readiness for college and career readiness. But as recent statistics suggest, college-readiness, even college-graduation-readiness, does not lead to out-basement-readiness. ...
They are the “boomerang kids,” writes a New York Times magazine article last week. These were good students. They were ready for college. They paid for college (many with borrowed money). They completed all college requirements. They did not drop out. And they graduated from college. But they are back in their parents’ basement for there is no career for them, ready or not.
The reason is simpler than many would like to accept: education has been preparing our students for an economy that no longer exists. ...
The “boomerang kids” are not poorly educated, but miseducated. They were prepared to look for jobs, but not to create jobs. They were prepared to solve problems, but not to identify problems or ask questions. ...
the more successful these reform efforts become, the more “boomerang kids” we will have.... ... The Common Core wants your kids to develop career readiness, but ask the question: who is equipped to create the careers they will become ready for?
So my 4th of July suggestion: Stop the Common Core or ready your basement for your college graduates.

Well, it's not entirely an educational problem; regulatory frameworks normally (necessarily?) favor those who already have a seat at the table. so an increasingly regulated economy has less room for the innovation that creates jobs, even if the innovators are prepared to do their part. But I think he's right: it is partly an educational problem, and our reforms are moving in the wrong direction.

Or then again, maybe not.

Aiming High

Sometimes, aiming high just means that you miss. Unintended consequences of raising state math, science graduation requirements -- ScienceDaily

Raising state-mandated math and science course graduation requirements (CGRs) may increase high school dropout rates without a meaningful effect on college enrollment or degree attainment, according to new research. To examine the effects of state-mandated CGRs on educational attainment, researchers looked at student outcomes in 44 states where CGRs were mandated in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bottom line: Looking at the article, it would seem that the main effect of enhanced requirements was that some students who would have finished high school but weren't going to college anyway still didn't go to college, but also didn't finish high school. (And my solution? I think they might be looking at the wrong problem....I'd be promoting German-style apprenticeship programs as more helpful to the students being affected here.)
update:What I'm talking about there is CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Expanding Apprenticeships

Today apprentices make up only 0.2 percent of the U.S. labor force, far less than in Canada (2.2 percent), Britain (2.7 percent), and Australia and Germany (3.7 percent). In addition, government spending on apprenticeship programs is tiny compared with spending by other countries and spending on less-effective career and community college systems that provide education and training for specific occupations. While total annual government funding for apprenticeship in the United States is only about $100 to $400 per apprentice, federal, state, and local annual government spending per participant for two-year public colleges is approximately $11,400. Not only are government outlays sharply higher, but the cost differentials are even greater after accounting for the higher earnings (and associated taxes) of apprentices compared to college students. Given these data, at least some of the low apprenticeship penetration can be attributed to a lack of public effort in promoting and supporting apprenticeship and to heavy subsidies for alternatives to apprenticeship. ...

"Unlike programs in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the apprenticeship system in the United States is almost entirely divorced from high schools and serves very few workers under the age of twenty-ive.

Worth thinking about.

Or on the other hand, maybe not.

International Students

No single proposal will solve any district's problems; we're looking for proposals which have helped other districts with low enrollment, both in and out of New York State. One is quite simple: it turns out that students from a variety of nations would like to spend a year or two of high school in the United States. As the New York State School Boards Association (nyssba.org) put it a a couple of years ago, FRN12 Issue Brief: F-1 Visa (pdf)

There exists a serious educational issue for small rural schools in New York State. Currently, many such schools face the prospect of closing due to declining enrollment and insufficient state aid. The resulting impact on their communities would be devastating, given the vital nature of these schools as leading employers, as well as community, cultural and emergency centers. Just as importantly, many of these schools have no viable options for educating their children should their schools close. Geography makes transportation to surrounding districts too burdensome on small children.
One exciting way to keep these essential small schools in operation is to allow international students to spend their secondary education as students at these schools. There is an abundance of international students willing to pay tuition, which avoids any cost to local or state taxpayers. The cultural advantages to New York State students are significant as well...

That was written in support of Schumer's proposed "F-1 Visa" reform bill, which would have made it easier for the students to stay longer, and I believe that bill died in committee; not sure. Even so, the system works well enough to help a great many international students attend quite a few U.S. schools. Let's start in rural South Dakota, Spring 2012: Public schools sell empty classroom seats abroad | Reuters

Superintendent Grant Vander Vorst has an improbable plan to save his little school on the prairie - by turning it into a magnet for wealthy foreign students. This year, 11 students from China, Thailand, Germany and elsewhere account for nearly 20% of high school enrollment, bringing cash and a welcome splash of diversity to an isolated patch of the Great Plains.
Grant-Deuel is not alone. Across the United States, public high schools in struggling small towns are putting their empty classroom seats up for sale.
In Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, and Lake Placid, New York, in Lavaca, Arkansas, and Millinocket, Maine, administrators are aggressively recruiting international students.
They're wooing well-off families in China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia and dozens of other countries, seeking teenagers who speak decent English, have a sense of adventure - and are willing to pay as much as $30,000 for a year in an American public school.
The end goal for foreign students: Admission to a U.S. college.

As the Huffington Post put it in 2011: Public Schools Recruit Tuition-Paying International Students To Boost Revenue

It's a growing trend: Other schools are doing the same in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia and Washington, according to a student recruitment agency in San Francisco.
Next fall, Millinocket Superintendent Ken Smith hopes to have at least 60 Chinese students – each paying $13,000 in tuition and another $11,000 for room and board – at Stearns High School. Stearns at one time had close to 700 high school students, but enrollment has fallen over the years to under 200 this year.
The first-year batch is now being signed up, Smith said, with plans for more international students in the years ahead. Local students will benefit by being exposed to those from abroad, and Chinese students will gain from being immersed in the local culture, he said.
When Smith went on a recruiting trip to the cities of Shanghai, Beijing and Fuzhou last fall, students there had never heard of Maine. But they knew they wanted to come to America to enhance their chances of going to an American college or university.
"They didn't know where Maine was, but they knew where Harvard was," Smith said. "They all want to go to Harvard."

From Education Week last February, we see tiny Newcomb, NY: Education Week: Rural Leader Buoys School With Foreign Students

In its high school grades, the school has about 40 students; 18 are from other countries. That's a significant number, given that the town has only about 200 families.
"We've gotten to the point where we're turning students away," Hults says.
Over the years, Hults has learned the differences between various types of visas, and he says the type of visa the district now requires enables it to receive tuition and accept host-family living expenses.
Newcomb has earned a good reputation among international students, and it sells itself with its location in the heart of a 6-million-acre park and its strong academics, Hults says.
Hults also has established relationships with more than 10 agencies that help find foreign students who want to come to his district.
The district requires students to have a conversational level of English-speaking proficiency to ensure they can succeed. Any lesser ability would negatively affect the classroom experience for local students, Hults says.
"If it weren't benefiting our students, I wouldn't do this program," Hults explains. "It truly does benefit our students. It has opened their eyes. It has given them broad exposure to the world, and for the kids who come here, they remain a part of our community. I think they will forever."

I think it's important to emphasize that kind of thing, rather than just the federal certification requirement and the agencies to "recruit" foreign students and the opportunity for our Superintendent to travel to China or Germany or wherever. International Student Program Adds Zest to School Life | Adirondack Foundation

Each international student pays tuition, which covers the costs of academics, including English-as-a-Second-Language support. Each lives with a local family that has at least one child at Keene Central School. A small stipend from the program fee helps the host family with expenses.
The impact that this program is having on this school of 160 students, K-12, is profound. High school students speak of the value of having a different perspective in the classroom, especially classes like American History and Government. “I wish we had this program sooner,” said one senior.

Actually it might be a very good thing if M-ECS, MCS, and SVCS had such programs too, sharing costs, appealing to different though overlapping groups of international students, and so forth. Mainly, though, it seems to me that Colgate's proximity is likely to make this work out well, not only because of the option of taking a Colgate course or two as a junior or senior, but because some Colgate students studying country X or its language might benefit from interacting with kids from that country, and the benefit might be mutual. I'm imagining a grant application to pay some such students for practical and emotional support...


Or then again, maybe not. But we should be considering it.

Consolidation Location

I want to think about several issues of school consolidation location selection, and focus on what for us may be a central issue -- the college connections. But first I'll consider some others, and (as an update) at the end I'll add some context.

Split Elementary If two declining-enrollment school systems consolidate to save money, they can often leave their elementary schools in place, and that seems like a good idea -- I suspect that most parents will agree that distance matters more for the very young (and their parents) and I'm not going to argue it here.

Merged High The high schools, however, must actually merge: if no new building is contemplated, then one set of students (and teachers) has to go to the buildings formerly occupied only by the other. In this case, we actually expect a merge to result in all middle-school students at one location, high school at the other, but it seems that high school is the focus of discussion.

Identity It's an emotional issue for many, which I think has to do with a sense of identity, and is likely to be strongest for those who grew up in one place and still live near their old high school; in rural communities that's common. I suppose I'm not the best person to address that sort of connection; I am at this moment close to 2627 miles almost due north of my old high school, which was my fourth high school (counting correspondence school but not counting junior high, or the other way around), and anyway senior year I spent more time doing freshman math and physics at a local university...the yearbook had a blank where my picture should have gone, and I've never gone back. So I should probably leave that issue alone. In any case, it's neutral -- except as a reason not to merge in the first place. Community identity is presumably always damaged in consolidation. (Or is it?)

Practicalities Apart from emotional ties, we have several possible concerns:

• Distance If A is much larger than B, then making A's students go to B is worse than the other way around -- but that's really an annexation, not a merger. In any case it doesn't seem to apply to us. If many of A's students walk or bicycle and only a few of B's, then it might again be less disruptive to bring B to A (they were on the road anyway.) That seems to apply -- I think that HCS students are more likely to walk (mine did) and M-ECS students have to drive or bus (it's far out from the village). Indeed, M-ECS seems to do more than double the bus transport of HCS, reinforcing the notion that the HCS student population is more concentrated. Call it a moderate H+, which will become more important in future if fuel costs rise.
• Facilities If one building is much newer than the other, or has a much better physical plant, then of course we use that one -- but both HCS and M-ECS have been recently upgraded and are probably comparable. (Except elementary, which is not in question here; see below.) I'd call it a wash, except that the HCS facility will soon be heated less expensively, by natural gas; I don't know how M-ECS is heated or what the relative costs are. So it might be a weak H+, or neutral.
• Outdoor Spaces Comparing upstate schools should involve not only athletic fields but woods and trails; apparently these are comparable.
• Nearby Places My kids all got themselves to music lessons in town, after school; they would also meet friends at local food places, and one had a habit of stopping for coffee while walking to high school. Groups of kids and grownups, e.g. theatrical and athletic groups, have found places to meet. I always thought this convenience was a major advantage; it turns out that some M-ECS parents think that their lack of this convenience is a major advantage, because truancy is harder work when your school is out in the middle of nowhere. That's interesting. It seems there's a tradeoff between making life harder for kids you trust, and making life harder for kids you don't. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something here -- I often do. I'm calling this a rather strong H+, but I accept that people with different values may call it an M+, and I accept that different values may provide good reasons not to merge in the first place.

And then there are the college connections which are my main focus here. Colgate has a history of supporting HCS, and of course SUNY Morrisville has supported M-ECS. It's my understanding that the level of support is not really comparable, simply because Colgate has a lot more resources. Some of these resources are straightforwardly financial -- Colgate gives a substantial voluntary contribution each year (there is no formal PILOT (Payment-In-Lieu-Of-Taxes) agreement, it's just voluntary.) Some apply at the elementary level. Some have to do with faculty volunteers. The connection that's most visibly endangered, though, applies to HCS juniors and seniors. It's common for HCS students to take a few Colgate courses despite schedule mismatches -- at any given moment, a dozen or so students are doing this, with about forty students in each HCS year. (I.e., a dozen or so out of about eighty juniors+seniors.) Some M-ECS students, according to the superintendent, would do the same if they could -- and they will be able to, if the high school location is in Hamilton. If the high school location is in Morrisville, that's probably gone -- add transport to the schedule mismatch and it won't be an option.

Is this a big deal? It is for the kids who sign up for it, and it is for those who would if they could, but can't yet do so. If the function of school is to serve kids' developmental needs, I'm calling that a strong H+.

And that's all I can think of....

Or then again, maybe not.

Context (update): This post is basically about two possibilities, but others exist. The elementary issue mentioned above is the possibility that Andrews Elementary, the separate and older elementary school for M-ECS, might close, with those students going to the M-ECS high school building, and M-ECS high schoolers coming to HCS. If enrolment is high and we stop using BOCES, this risks overcrowding. On the other hand, if later on we learn that we have a safety margin, this would save a good deal of money, about $300-350K/year in addition to any gain from sale or lease, and avoiding the likelihood that as the oldest building it might need repair sooner than the others. Even apart from consideration of Morrisville's heavier debt and heavier dependence on state aid, it may be worth keeping this option open. (Whenever I say "state aid" I think "New York, like most states, is in trouble...and there are lots of reasons why the financial district that's providing this aid might not do as well in years to come.")

Time on MOOCs

From Time Magazine, a sampling of online courses and the way they can leverage what we've learned about learning.... College Is Dead. Long Live College! | TIME.com

Minute 4: Professor Brown asked me a question. “What did the Greeks know?” The video stopped, patiently waiting for me to choose one of the answers, a task that actually required some thought. This happened every three minutes or so, making it difficult for me to check my e-mail or otherwise disengage — even for a minute.
“You got it right!” The satisfaction of correctly answering these questions was surprising. (One MOOC student I met called it “gold-star methadone.”) The questions weren’t easy, either. I got many of them wrong, but I was allowed to keep trying until I got the gold-star fix.
Humans like immediate feedback, which is one reason we like games. Researchers know a lot about how the brain learns, and it’s shocking how rarely that knowledge influences our education system. ...
... Minute 8: Professor Brown explained that Plato had also tried (and failed) to estimate the earth’s circumference. Brown did this by jotting notes on a simple white screen. Like all the other videos in the course, this clip lasted only a few minutes. This too reflects how the brain learns. Studies of college students have shown that they can focus for only 10 to 18 minutes before their minds begin to drift; that’s when their brains need to do something with new information — make a connection or use it to solve a problem.

For any given person, on any given day, as the day goes by the ideal pace of learning changes. No one can predict how that's going to work even for one person, much less make an ideal pace for a group...but maybe self-paced learning (unlike the teaching-machines self-paced learning that I read about in high school, in the 60s) can finally work out.
Or then again, maybe not.

HCS data conflict

Ken Bausch notes that Newsweeks's America's Best High Schools 2011 - Newsweek and The Daily Beast report said that 90% of our 2010 students were college-bound:

Rank	School	City	State	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Grad Rate	AP/IB Tests	College Bound (%)	Avg SAT	News- week Score
496	Hamilton	Hamilton	NY	11.5	94	1.3	90	1558	0.092

However, http://www.hamiltoncentral.org/files/217205/college%20data%20me%20hamilton.pdf says on page 5 of 12 that Hamilton's "College enrolled in 1st. Y r." figure for 2010 was 72%. Strange.