May 31, 2006
Failier Failyur how does it go again?
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The next round in the LAUSD takeover wars
Villaraigosa pitched his takeover plan to the teachers' unions yesterday. Predictably, they sounded, shall we say, less than enthusiastic:
"I don't doubt his commitment, but I feel as a relatively new mayor that there are so many other things on his plate," said Mary Bergan, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which adopted a resolution earlier this year opposing mayoral control of schools. "I don't know what kind of upheaval it would bring."
The California PTA has not taken a position on the takeover plan, but President-elect Pam Brady said she was impressed by Villaraigosa's overture to her organization.
"I felt like we were listened to, like he was open to us taking any position, whether it was in opposition or not," Brady said. "He honestly laid his plan on the table and understood that some people will like it and some people won't."
Meanwhile, back on the ranch...
In Los Angeles, the mayor's takeover plan took a drubbing at a special hearing called by the Los Angeles Board of Education. The meeting was ostensibly held for the board to hear "case studies" of how other cities have managed mayoral control of schools, but, with one exception, no effort was made to present the mayors' points of view.
The board had invited speakers from parent organizations in New York, Chicago and Detroit, all of which have experimented with mayoral control of education, and a mayoral aide from San Francisco, which has not. Either implicitly or explicitly, all of the speakers warned against a mayoral takeover in Los Angeles. School board members responded with some of their sharpest remarks about Villaraigosa's effort.
Carmen Colon, a parent from Brooklyn who is president of the Assn. of New York City Education Councils, warned that the school takeover by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had marginalized parents with a relatively trivial advisory role.
"All I can say to you is, it's your city, it's your school, it's your child, and don't let them forget that," she said.
Ismail Vargas, assistant director of a parent group in Chicago, said the school takeover in his city by Mayor Richard M. Daley had resulted in a more aloof, less responsive school system.
"This is the problem of mayors trying to take charge of the public education system," he said. "We call this the public education system — it's for the public, not for the mayor."
Shanta Driver, a parent from Detroit, described the short-lived mayoral control of the schools there as "a complete disaster."
"Any time you have a proposal for improving the schools that you can't get a majority of the school board to back, you know that proposal stinks," she said.
In light of these developments, School Me has broken out the Predict-O-Meter TM again. Guess which way the needle turns?
Posted by Ryan Boots at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Economics of public schools
George Mason University economics department chair Donald Boudreaux describes the economic behavior of public schools:
Government K-12 schools, as now run everywhere in the U.S., will never excel at educating students. The reason is that each school gets its students and its budget without having to compete for them.
Imagine if, say, supermarkets were run the same way we run schools. Everyone in my county would pay taxes to fund the county supermarket system; each one of us would then be assigned one specific county supermarket at which we are allowed to shop.
Of course, once in our assigned store, all the groceries that each of us gets are "free" -- meaning, we don't have to pay for them on the spot. If the products and services supplied by the supermarket are of poor quality, we're not allowed to switch to other county markets; we must, instead, complain to politicians.
The managers of the supermarkets will agree that their stores offer abysmal service and undesirable products; they will assert that this sad fact is caused by underfunding. We will be warned that only by paying higher taxes will we have any possibility of getting better supermarkets.
So our taxes will rise and funding for supermarkets will increase. But quality will remain poor -- and the excuses offered by the government-employed managers of the supermarkets will remain that they need yet more funding.
Kind of like I said here. Except, you know, more professorlike. (Hat tip to Hispanic Pundit.)
Posted by Ryan Boots at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)Teacher responsibility
Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial:
"The biggest revolution caused by No Child Left Behind is the revolution in education research," says Georgia State University's Gary Henry, a scholar in educational policy and evaluation. "We are getting better at figuring out what works. But what we are seeing is almost nothing that has a very large effect."
Even when the research shows a gain, it's a very small gain produced under the best of circumstances. That's because most reforms only tug at the edges and don't address central flaws in public education: A teacher's track record of improving student performance is hidden from public view, and that performance is not used as a factor in teacher salaries.
Researchers agree that the most reliable predictor of teacher success is past success. So what parents ought to look for is a teacher who has demonstrated gains in student scores from one year to the next. That track record is more telling than a teacher's academic credentials or experience. Yet, parents never see that crucial piece of the puzzle.
"We should, as parents, have that full data," says Henry. "We have the capacity here in Georgia to make that data available. Basically, it is a flip of a switch. That would empower parents to really be active."
Apparently, that's just what schools fear, a flood of active parents armed with data showing that Ms. X raises test scores year after year and Mr. Y does not. Because that would force schools to do something about Mr. Y— either offer him professional development or suggest a career change.
Meanwhile, Ken De Rosa examines a report on a Charlotte high school and notes this comment:
As the school year draws to a close, the principal is still pushing a two-pronged mission: Get students to take responsibility for their own success. And get teachers to believe in students. (emphasis added)
Ken's commentary:
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)So, the students have to take responsibility for learning while the teachers don't quite have to take responsibility for teaching. They just have to "believe in students." I suppose believing is better than nothing.
I'm wondering how a student is supposed to take responsibility for learning if the teaching isn't any good. Isn't good teaching, which starts with teachers taking responsibility for teaching well, a prerequisite to any student learning?
Education news for Wednesday, May 31
Fossella talks to bishop about NY tuition tax credits - In an effort to drum up support for federal legislation that would give parents of students in parochial and private schools a $4,500 tax credit to help pay for tuition, Rep. Vito Fossella reached out yesterday to the leader of the Brooklyn Diocese. (more)
Lazy FL media focuses on wrong story - The Associated Press reports that the Democratic candidates for governor are unknown to the citizens of Florida. Not only is that a clipping to be filed in the "lazy story" pile, but it's also an indictment of a slumbering media. (more)
Preschool benefits grossly exaggerated - A Rand Corporation study that claims universal preschool will deliver $2.62 in benefits for every dollar spent by California taxpayers has been thoroughly discredited ... (more)
Come back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
AP:Black, Hispanic pupils see school as tough - Black and Hispanic students see school as a more rowdy, disrespectful and dangerous place than their white classmates do, a poll says. (more)
UPDATE:
49% of parents got first choice schools in Lee - Only 49 percent of parents got their top choice during Lee County's second round of school choice registration, down from 82 percent in the first round. (more).
Parents: Know educational choices - With the application deadline fast approaching, 561 students, 1.2 percent of those eligible, have signed up for the new statewide EdChoice school voucher program. (more).
Fossella and the Bishop - Albany botched education tax credits when lawmakers took up the issue this spring, but if New Yorkers are lucky, a New York congressman will do better in Washington. (more)
America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids: School Choice for ... - Millions of students across the United States are enrolled in persistently failing public schools. During the 2004-2005 school year, 2,112 Title I public schools were identified as having failed to make adequate yearly progress for five or more years. This represents 23 percent of all Title I-eligible schools. (more)
Opinion: Strengthen what works in Michigan's schools - Good schools change lives. That's why the Skillman Foundation just awarded $1.5 million to 32 elementary and middle schools in Detroit that we believe are making a difference in the lives of local children. (more)
Posted by Daily News at 05:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)May 30, 2006
No school choice for lawmakers?
We spotted this over the weekend:
I called a lobbyist and asked him for a number: how many of the 212 members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate send their children to private schools? These are the people who make the rules for the public-school system. As the state constitution says, "the legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein the children of the state may be educated." How many of them, after they do their constitutional duty, send their children to those schools? Or, after they pass laws affecting the public schools, how many send their own kids to private schools?
He couldn't tell me. (In fact, considering the age of most lawmakers, he said the real question has to do with the legislators' grandchildren.) The answer, however, should be well-known.
Because common sense suggests that legislators who have children in public school will be especially interested in improving them, why not make it a requirement: the children of legislators must go to a public school.
Oh, we will make some allowances for very special situations depending on the needs of the child. But we won't make allowances based on the wallet of the legislators, or the decision that what is good enough for everyone else is not good enough for his or her kid.
In addition, the same rule will apply to administrators in the New York State Education Department. You want to make and enforce education regulations? Wonderful, and your children will be in the schools where those regulations apply.
One final piece. If you are an officer at the state level in a teachers' union, either the National Education Association of New York or the New York State United Teachers, your kids are in public schools. If you lobby for more public funding for education, as well as protecting the rights of accused teachers, place your children in those schools.
If the people responsible for shaping the public-school system have their own children in them, we won't be surprised when the schools are more effective. In addition, we can expect the distance between the best and the worst to shrink when influential people must register their children in poor schools.
The Chalkboard finds the idea atrocious:
Horrible, horrible, idea. Cruel, even.
No one - no matter who they are - should ever be forced to send their kids into an educational environment that wastes a child's time, puts him or her in danger, or limits their ability to have a productive adult life in our democracy. Just because someone is an elected official doesn't mean they should send their kids to crappy schools.
It just would be nice if they thought of the rest the parental planet when they voted on education issues.
But the school choice movement has actually been here before. From Clint's book Voucher Wars, p. 28:
Back in Milwaukee, Polly Williams (the Wisconsin legislator responsible for enacting the Milwaukee voucher program-ed.) was still shaking things up. She had learned that most of the Milwaukee Public School teachers, like many urban public school teachers around the nation, sent their own children to private school. Yet they had the audacity to challenge the school choice program. Fine, said Polly: if the public schools are good enough for our kids, they ought to be good enough for their kids. So she announced that she would sponsor legislation making it a condition of employment that public school teachers send their own children to public schools. The response was death threats on Polly's home answering machine. Tongue in cheek, I had to advise Polly that her proposal would be unconstitutional--public school teachers, like all Americans, have a constitutional right to send their children to private schools. But the point about the union's hypocrisy was brilliantly made.
And, of course, public schoolteachers are still much more likely to send their children to private schools. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Bypassing high school
Back in February, Bill Gates called high schools "obsolete". It seems some students agree with him:
It is a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland idea. If you do not finish high school, head straight for college.
But many colleges — public and private, two-year and four-year — will accept students who have not graduated from high school or earned equivalency degrees.
And in an era of stubbornly elevated high school dropout rates, the chance to enter college through the back door is attracting growing interest among students without high school diplomas.
That growth is fueling a debate over whether the students should be in college at all and whether state financial aid should pay their way. In New York, the issue flared in a budget battle this spring.
Of course, the question will immediately arise as to whether this is in a dropout's best interests--if they couldn't handle high school, how on earth can they expect to handle college? The article goes into some detail discussing that issue (it seems to be a mixed bag overall). But there's another facet to this issue that is worth addressing. The Gates Foundation's recent study found that boredom was a big factor in some students' decision to drop out (p. iii):
Nearly half (47 percent) said a major reason for dropping out was that classes were not interesting. These young people reported being bored and disengaged from high school. Almost as many (42 percent) spent time with people who were not interested in school. These were among the top reasons selected by those with high GPAs and by those who said they were motivated to work hard.
Nearly 7 in 10 respondents (69 percent) said they were not motivated or inspired to work hard, 80 percent did one hour or less of homework each day in high school, two-thirds would have worked harder if more was demanded of them (higher academic standards and more studying and homework), and 70 percent were confident they could have graduated if they had tried. Even a majority of those with low GPAs thought they could have graduated.
To be accurate, there are no single answers as to why students drop out. For these students, terminal boredom probably wasn't the only reason, or even the biggest reason. But if a student is fed up and wants out of high school, what's wrong with him/her moving on to junior college? We let students graduate from high school early. So is it necessarily a bad thing if a student is commits to college in lieu of a high school diploma? We get an unmotivated student out of the classroom, freeing up some tax dollars and classroom space, and make it at least a little more likely that the student, now paying tuition, will take a little more ownership in his/her education.
It's also worth pointing out that setting the age of adulthood at 18 is a relatively recent development. As early as the late 1800s, a 16-year-old was considered an adult, with all the corresponding rights and responsibilities. In that light, maybe it's not entirely surprising that so many juniors seem to come down with senioritis.
Sense and Disability: A Second Reply to Rotherham (Matthew Ladner)
Andrew Rotherham and I are out to prove everyone wrong by demonstrating that it is possible to have a civil debate about school vouchers, in this case, school vouchers for children with disabilities.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Tuesday, May 30
Can't Complete High School? Go Right Along to College - It is a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland idea. If you do not finish high school, head straight for college. (more)
Unions' retirement advice is failing teachers - Some of the United States' largest teachers unions have joined forces with investment companies to steer members into retirement plans that frequently have high expenses and mediocre returns. (more)
Why Supe Selection Is Like Judging a Dog Show - By the end of this column I will have selected the next superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Because I believe that the children, parents, teachers and citizens of Los Angeles are entitled to transparency in such deliberations, I invite you to join me as I work my way toward a decision. (more)
School choice focus of forum - School choice — at least a version that would grant tax credits to some parents who enroll their children in private schools — revealed clear differences for viewers who watched Sunday’s televised debate featuring five Republicans running for South Carolina superintendent of education. (more)
Parents Answer Cellphone Ban in N.Y. Schools - They say the crackdown is too strict and imperils children's safety. But the mayor holds the line. (more)
GOP's missed chance: No choice for NH parents - Editorial: Republicans in the state House of Representatives might have missed their best chance to implement one of their platform planks. (more)
It adds up: How teachers in Palm Beach County could earn six-figure salaries - Looking for a job with eventual six-figure earning potential? You might consider teaching at a Palm Beach County school. (more)
Will school closures do job? - As Seattle Public Schools prepares to shutter as many as a dozen school buildings, there's growing concern that closures won't save as much money as expected. (more)
Mayor Faces School Skeptics - In an effort to shore up support for his quest to win control of the Los Angeles public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will go to Sacramento today to lobby business and labor leaders, as legislators warn that the major initiative of his term could be in trouble. (more)
A Mostly Easy Road for Chief of Schools - His wife's illness is the one issue overshadowing Jack O'Connell as he runs a less-than-stressful campaign for reelection as California's superintendent of public instruction. (more)
Exit-exam shift not the best answer for high schoolers - Opinion: The California legislature should vote down an effort to weaken the state's high academic expectations. (more)
Education earmark shows Los Angeles now in political power - A look at a $1 billion earmark for Los Angeles Unified School District--and what it means for the perpetual school finance battles in California. (more)
UPDATE:
CA initiative renews preschool debate - From coast to coast, states are pushing to get more 4-year-olds into classrooms like Cheryl Smith's thriving pre-kindergarten group at Cool Spring Elementary School in Adelphi. (more)
Ohio EdChoice voucher participation - With the application deadline fast approaching, 561 students, 1.2% of those eligible, have signed up for the new statewide EdChoice school voucher program. Despite this slow start, there is good reason to believe that this voucher program can fulfill its promise of offering true education choice to those who need it most. (more)
Wisconsin yanks school's voucher status - State officials ordered Sa'Rai and Zigler Upper Excellerated Academy out of Milwaukee's voucher program Friday, citing possible fraud in student applications. (more)
With more choice has come resegregation - A school-assignment system established in 2001 to give San Francisco parents more choice has resegregated many schools across San Francisco. (more)
Posted by Daily News at 05:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)California parents don't know about free NCLB tutoring?!
Thousands of students in Inland schools are not taking advantage of the free tutoring available to them under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Minimal efforts to notify parents, lack of transportation for students and low parent interest are reasons cited by many school-district officials, tutoring providers and parents.
In 2004-05, about 800,000 students across the state were eligible to receive the free tutoring that certain schools are required to offer when they fail to meet academic-performance targets for three years in a row. However, only 12 percent received the services, according to a report by the state Department of Education.
Nationwide, only 16.6 percent of the 1.4 million students eligible in 2003-04, the latest year with numbers available, received tutoring.
In Riverside and San Bernardino county school districts, the percentage of students participating in free tutoring programs range from zero to about 34 percent.
In a speech last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said districts must do a better job of reaching out to parents and telling them their options.
"More than half of school districts didn't even tell parents that their children were eligible for these options until after the school year had already begun," Spellings said.
Why, you would think there was some kind of pattern here!
Posted by Ryan Boots at 05:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Choosing a Charter School—The Pain of It All (Kevin R. Kosar)
A few years ago, I landed a very good job in Washington, DC. After a few months, I dropped to my knee, and asked a lovely woman to marry me and join me in DC. She agreed. Lucky me.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)May 29, 2006
Merit pay getting traction?
Are the unions finally coming around to the idea of merit pay?
The state’s two largest teachers unions did something few expected with Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plug for merit pay — they didn’t dismiss it.
Leaders with the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers — which together represent more than 210,000 educators — say they could support tying pay to classroom performance … if pay is not tied to test scores alone;
… if local teachers have a hand in designing the salary deal;
… and if it doesn’t shortchange teachers in schools dogged by poverty, high drop-out rates or violence.
“We’re not opposed to exploring this if it’s done in a way we believe gives our people a voice in the process,” Illinois Education Association President Ken Swanson said.
Here's hoping.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)LAUSD--The Enron of Education (Bill Grundfest)
"Which side are you on, boy...
Which side are you on..."
-- Pete Seeger song, which got him blacklisted
Continue reading "LAUSD--The Enron of Education (Bill Grundfest)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)May 26, 2006
Taking a long look at Milwaukee
Overall, it's hard to complain a whole lot about this Christian Science Monitor article on the Milwaukee choice program. A few remarks...
- Just because Jack Jennings and the NEA don't like the present body of research on Milwaukee doesn't mean it isn't persuasive.
- The article talked about the closing of voucher schools as though it were a bad thing. We are among the first to applaud when a bad voucher school is shut down, because to be quite blunt, if they couldn't get the job done, they had it coming. Compare that to substandard public schools which, unlike failed voucher schools, manage to stay in business year after year.
- Now to the juiciest tidbit of all. Starting next year, long-term data will finally be taken for the purposes of a longitudinal (read: long-term) study of the quality of Milwaukee voucher schools. A variety of people/groups quoted in the article lamented the lack of long-term data available on the program. One organization in particular was the AFT's Center on Accountability and Privatization ("After this many years there ought to be some hard data, and there's not"). What wasn't noted in the article is that voucher advocates have been pushing for this for several years--and that Gov. Doyle vetoed the legislation at the request of the teachers' union. Now why on earth would the union fear a scientific study of the choice program by a nonpartisan organization? We don't know. You'll have to ask them!
Voucher discussions
Jenny D.'s recent posts on school choice have sparked a whole lot of discussion. (Check out the threads for lots of interesting commentary.)
We're obviously just a bit late to this party, and it's kind of hard to add a whole lot to what has already been said over there, but that obviously won't stop us from trying! A few observations in no particular order.
First off, it seems like much of the discussion--especially in the first post--took place with no reference to places like Milwaukee and Washington D.C., where choice programs have been in place for years. Many of the questions about distribution of vouchers, admission requirements, special ed issues have been addressed through some degree of experience. Of course, not everybody is happy with the conclusions that have been reached--see Eduwonk's response to Matt Ladner on Florida's special ed vouchers. (And why does he keep calling it Edpresso? But we digress.) It would be worthwhile to discuss what has already taken place in areas where voucher programs have been in place for a while, and what has been learned throught that experience.
Another closely connected point is that there seems to be an assumption that school choice is an all-or-nothing deal. Notwithstanding the hyperventilating on the part of some, the mainstream school choice movement is not seeking to simply shut down the public school system in favor of private enterprise. This statement will probably infuriate the hard-core libertarians out there, but we'll just come out and say it: the public school system is here to stay, and no form of school choice is going to change that.
Which dovetails to our third point: the reason school choice won't destroy public schools is because it hasn't. Fifteen years of vouchers in Milwaukee, and oddly enough the public school system hasn't disintegrated. As mentioned yesterday, school choice appears to have done Florida some good. But it seems like some of the questions were framed along those lines. We agree that hypotheticals are certainly valuable in the framework of a discussion, but at some point the exchange really does need to come back to reality.
One last thought. In that second post, Jenny posed this question:
If the public schools were, in your estimation, doing a good job educating kids in academics, would you want school choice? Why?
If McDonald's is doing a good job feeding you, would you want to eat at Subway? Why? Maybe because of the virtues of competition?
More on the Ohio choice program
The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the Ohio school choice program isn’t getting many nibbles:
Few public-school students have signed up for the state to pay their way to a private school this fall, and time is running out.
Although there are roughly 13,000 Franklin County students eligible to apply to attend private schools on the state’s dime, only 148 have so far.
Across Ohio, as many as 14,000 private-school vouchers could be offered. But as of yesterday, 561 students had signed up. The deadline to apply is June 9.
Allow us to fill in the gaps. In its first year of existence, the Milwaukee voucher program had 743 students. The D.C. program had around 1000. Same with Florida. But the Ohio program is expected to rival or exceed previous first-year efforts. No, it won’t be anywhere close to the cap, but as pointed out in the article, no program ever opens with every voucher being taken.
Furthermore, we’re getting reports that a lot of private schools are waiting until school wraps up this week or next to send in their applications. Expect a major rush on the program within the next seven to ten days, which should help fill out those projected numbers.
Also, it’s worth noting that, as pointed out in the article, it takes time for word to get around on the program. By calling it a “scholarship” program, many parents assume that only high-achieving students are eligible. That’s one of several reasons it takes three to four years for choice programs to really have a measurable impact. And with the Ohio Department of Education not lending any real muscle to the marketing effort, it will be a pretty big deal if the program is able to achieve the expected applicant numbers.
Furious backpedaling
In case you doubted the influence of the teachers' unions in the Democratic Party:
After a long day of campaigning recently for the state Assembly seat he seeks as the capstone to his political career, Democrat Frank Quintero sat down to a debate and, when asked if he supports school vouchers, gave what he later called a "halting, feeble yes."
The one-word response and his mention of vouchers later in the evening forced Quintero's campaign for the 43rd Assembly District into damage control. He retracted the comment later that week, saying he opposed vouchers - government funding to help parents with private school tuition.
But opponents seized on his original statement to portray him either as a waffler or a danger to public education.
The weekend after the May 1 debate, California Teachers Association members stood outside Quintero's campaign office to hold him accountable. A week later, the California branch of the National Organization for Women released a poll suggesting voters took exception to the voucher statement.
Both organizations had already endorsed Paul Krekorian, Quintero's Democratic opponent in the June 6 primary. But the price Quintero paid for what he calls a slip of the tongue reveals the dangers of straying from the message in a campaign.
"Obviously in a Democratic primary, that's not the thing to say, that you support school vouchers," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based think tank.
Understatement of the year. (Hat tip to A Constrained Vision.)
States boost eduspending
According to Stateline, a number of states flush with unexpected tax revenues are increasing education spending: Arkansas, Georgia, and Kansas are just a few. And take a look at how much Wyoming is about to start shelling out.
On a related note, it's interesting to see how the improved economy is forcing Washington D.C. to take a hard look at education.
Homeowners, business leaders and newcomers with a financial stake in the District's economic revival are pushing the troubled D.C. school system to the top of the city's political agenda in a landmark election year when voters will choose a mayor and council chairman.
Polls show education surpassing taxes, crime and affordable housing as the top concern among voters across the city. In a survey late last year for mayoral candidate and D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), almost 60 percent of those polled said education is the city's biggest problem, followed by housing at a distant second.
Mayoral contenders are hearing the same message on the campaign trail from childless couples worried about property values, business executives struggling to find qualified workers, and parents frustrated by the poor condition and academic performance of public schools.
Read the whole thing.
SIDE NOTE--An e-mailer reminds us that all these states obviously haven't studied recent history in Kansas City.
UPDATE: Goofed and left out the main Stateline link! Fixed now.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Friday, May 26
Solve FCAT mystery of 10th-graders' scores - the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is good at diagnosing problems. But as any doctor would tell you, diagnosis is not treatment or a cure. (more)
States open wallets, tackle big agendas - years of belt-tightening in the first half of this decade have given way to modest tax cuts and extra spending, particularly on education... (more)
CA students appeal exit ruling - Students who sued the state for discrimination after failing the high school exit exam asked a state appeals court Thursday to immediately hear their claim that the requirement should be suspended so they can graduate this year. (more)
Ohio early school advocates say children unprepared - Success By 6 released two reports Thursday that contain dreary statistics about the literacy readiness of preschool children in Hamilton County and Cincinnati. It also has a plan to address their deficiencies. (more)
UPDATE:
Universal Preschool Campaign Pushes to Sway Latino Voters - Their children have less access to such programs and often need English aid, say backers of Prop. 82. Affluent would get unneeded help, foes say. (more)
Katrina evacuees graduate from high school in Houston - resident and Katrina evacuee Travis Hill-Williams, 17, who graduates from Jones High School, talks about his experiences during a Houston Independent School District news conference. (more)
Posted by Daily News at 05:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Schools Failed the Exit Exam (Alan Bonsteel)
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman struck down California's new high school exit exam last week, saying the test is unfair to students who have been shortchanged by substandard public schools.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)May 25, 2006
Time out for the NYT
Whitney Tilson takes the New York Times to task over their coverage of charter schools.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Why the government can't tell which teachers are good
Some lucid thoughts on merit pay from the Dallas Morning News:
The problem is that teacher quality gets evaluated on credentials, not quality. How many hours of math classes you took in college. Whether you've filled out the paperwork for a certain certificate. Whether you've gone back to get a master's degree.
The federal "highly qualified" standard, for instance, is primarily about what hoops a teacher has jumped through, not how good of a teacher she is.
But there are awful certified teachers and terrific uncertified ones. There are amazing teachers with just a bachelor's degree and terrible ones with a doctorate. Plenty of research has shown that quality doesn't align neatly with credentials.
Differentiating good teachers from bad ones has always been a touchy subject. Take salary. Great running backs get paid more than benchwarmers. Great trial lawyers get paid more than mediocre ones. So shouldn't the best teachers get paid more than the worst?
In Dallas ISD, an amazingly talented 15-year veteran teacher makes $46,176. And a thoroughly mediocre 15-year veteran teacher makes...$46,176.
(There are a few ways those figures can budge by a couple thousand bucks. But they're tied to things like job titles and credentials – not individual performance.)
There have been a few stabs at "merit pay" proposals around the country, but most have flopped. Teachers, rightly, have complained that most such plans would reward teachers primarily on their students' test scores. That's not fair because teachers in Dallas get different kids to work with than teachers in Highland Park or Plano.
But why can't a teacher's quality be judged the way everyone else's is? Not on some mechanized system tied to test scores, but by their bosses' evaluation of their performance.
Read the whole thing. (Although if we were Jenny Katie Newmark, we would be leveling plagiarism charges right about now.)
Blast from the past
Posted by Ryan Boots at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Thursday, May 25
Justices Restore Exit Exam - Thousands of struggling high school seniors are likely to be denied a diploma after the state Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated California's exit exam, a hotly debated gauge of competency in math and English. (more)
Villaraigosa Supports Reinstatement Of Exit Exam - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school Superintendent Roy Romer praised Wednesday the state Supreme Court's decision reinstating the California High School Exit Exam as a graduation requirement for 2006. (more)
Will Blagojevich's school reform plan work? - If Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gets his way, the state lottery would be sold or leased to raise $10 billion for his school reform plan. (more)
'Great' educators not enough under law - Teachers, some with decades of teaching experience, have to prove their worth under federal guidelines that require 100 percent of teachers in core subjects be "highly qualified" by June 30. (more)
65 Percent Solution: Gimmick or Gold Mine? - A very lengthy article on the 65% solution. (more)
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
NYT: Test shows drip in science achievement for 12-graders - The first nationwide science test administered in five years shows that achievement among high school seniors has declined across the past decade... (more)
School performance gap falls along racial, economic lines - Seventy-four percent of Wisconsin’s 10th-grade students were proficient or advanced in reading, while 70 percent of students were proficient or advanced in math. (more)
S.C. Rep. Bill Cotty is against vouchers - ...tax credits or anything else that takes South Carolina’s resources and focus off of our central challenge — educating the kids who aren’t getting educated, who aren’t employable, who make our state less attractive to investors. (more)
U.S. a failure at evaluating teachers - A group called the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has come up with a process designed to recognize top-notch teachers.. (more)
New York Post, Ryan Sager: Voice for Kids - Parents vs. special interests... (more)
US DOE warns of fake e-mails about NCLB - Ed Week (subscription required) The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to debunk widely circulated e-mails that erroneously say the No Child Left Behind Act mandates that students who fail their 10th grade reading and math tests must accept an inferior high school completion certificate... (more)
Polite Agreement or Something We Can Use? (Barry Garelick)
Education Secretary Spellings recently announced the formation of a presidentially appointed panel that was formed to address math teaching. According to the charter of this panel, one of its purposes is “to foster greater knowledge of and improved performance in mathematics among American students.” The panel is charged with producing a report in two years, which must contain recommendations pertaining to how math instruction can be improved in the U.S. In particular, the report must address the skills necessary for students to acquire competence in algebra and to prepare them for higher levels of mathematics.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)May 24, 2006
Spellings discovering NCLB wiggle room?
Alexander Russo issues his thoughts on Spellings's proposed changes of the SES/choice requirements in NCLB.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Warping recent history in Florida
Gotta hand it to the Lakeland Ledger--as demonstrated here, they're nothing if not consistent.
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Posted by Ryan Boots at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)California exit exam ruling stayed
The California Supreme Court issued a stay:
The California Supreme Court today reinstated the state's high school exit exam one week after a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the test that students need to pass to graduate.
The high court granted a request by the state education department to lift the injunction and referred the case to the state appellate court for further action.
With graduation ceremonies fast approaching at many schools, it is not immediately clear how the Supreme Court's decision today affects the thousands of high school seniors who have failed the exam and would have been prevented from receiving their diplomas.
School Me comments. Dave, who gave us the heads-up, is ecstatic.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)Weighing In on the Graduation Rate Debate (Dan Losen)
(Note: Dan Losen was quoted in this Washington Post story on graduation rates. We linked the story in today's news, where Dan left the following comment. We are posting it here with his permission. -ed.)
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Posted by Featured Guest at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Wednesday, May 24
Appointees try to boost vouchers - The old rap on the Pentagon is that the generals keep wanting to refight the last war. You could say the same thing about Florida's Board of Education. (more)
Dropout data raise questions on two fronts - Economist Larry Mishel was troubled by high school graduation statistics that contradicted what he thought was good research. That was particularly true of data used by many politicians and pundits to bemoan a 30 percent dropout rate in American high schools. (more)
Parents should thank strict teachers - In conversations I've had with teachers, Scottsdale parents tend to involve themselves in their children's education - but not always in positive ways. (more)
UPDATE:
Feds' teacher rules strain rural Arizona areas - Veteran teachers have to prove they are highly qualified through a combination of years of experience, college course background and professional development. (more)
Ed Week commentary: Bridging differences - (subscription required) A Dialogue Between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch. (more)
NAEP science scores essentially flat except at 4th grade level - Ed Week (subscription required) At a time when educators, elected officials, and corporate leaders are fretting over American students’ weak science skills, new test results show that the nation’s middle schoolers made no progress in that subject over the past five years... (more)
Choice, SES would flip under NCLB pilot plan - Ed Week (subscription required) Building on an initiative piloted this school year in Virginia, participating districts could offer students a choice of supplemental educational services, or SES, a year before having to provide the option of transferring to a higher-performing school. (more)
UPDATE:
Education becoming top issue for DC - Homeowners, business leaders and newcomers with a financial stake in the District's economic revival are pushing the troubled D.C. school system to the top of the city's political agenda in a landmark election year when voters will choose a mayor and council chairman. (more)
New Orleans schools try to work together - State officials fielded myriad questions Tuesday from parents and teachers curious and at times baffled about how public schools will operate in New Orleans this fall, now that the local district, the state Department of Education and independent charters have control over various campuses throughout the city. (more)
LA Times opinion: Preschool: the best policy money can buy - Are public investments in preschool good for children's educations and for their well being? Do they make sense for society?After five decades of research, the answer is unequivocally yes. (more)
A Christian group finds its way into public schools - On a recent sunny afternoon at Stuyvesant High School, the track team warmed up in the lobby. On the sixth floor, the school newspaper staff assembled to listen to a speaker. Outside, a cluster of students gathered to pray. (more)
CA teachers union supports governor's school friendly budget - Leaders of the California Teachers Association took the unexpected step Tuesday of endorsing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget and launching a lobbying effort to ensure its passage. (more)
UPDATE:
High School Exit Exam Reinstated - The California Supreme Court today reinstated the state's high school exit exam one week after a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the test that students need to pass to graduate. (more)
Posted by Daily News at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)Improving Education Is A Great Idea, But Prop. 82 Is Not (Peter H. Hanley)
Proposition 82 on the June ballot in California, like all things that are too good to be true, sounds great until you really take a look at exactly what it will do and exactly who will benefit. The fact is Prop. 82 will do very little to help our struggling K-12 system or the kids most at risk.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)May 23, 2006
NYT story: digging a bit deeper
The Roosevelt Union Free School District on Long Island spends around $10,500 per student, more than $2000 above the state average. For special ed students, they spend (hold on to your hat) nearly $32,000 per pupil, 80% more than the statewide average.
An acquaintance who grew up on Long Island said Roosevelt is infamous for being the worst district in the area, and the numbers reflect it. Test scores are abysmal. Based on this, the 2004 graduation rate was 48 percent. So in that light, maybe this isn't such a surprise after all:
Four years after taking over the failing Roosevelt schools on Long Island, state officials released an audit yesterday criticizing the school district's management for continuing fiscal irregularities, including paying for a $6,000 trip to Argentina and the South Pole.
Other issues raised in the audit included a lack of oversight by a state-appointed local board, a two-year delay in a school aid payment of $120,000 because of late paperwork, failure to follow bidding and contract approval procedures, the lack of a textbook inventory, the storage of blank checks in unsecured places and lax procedures under the former treasurer, who has been replaced.
In a telephone interview, the current superintendent, Ronald O. Ross, generally agreed with the findings of the audit. Many of its 62 recommendations have already been carried out and the rest will be, he said. Part of the period covered by the audit preceded his arrival, and he attributed many of the mistakes to incompetent aides he had since removed.
The audit questioned trips arranged by Mr. Ross and a previous superintendent. The trip to Argentina, scheduled by Mr. Ross through a national group of superintendents, was what the audit called a 13-day "professional development" conference that included a cruise to the Antarctic. Though the trip was canceled, the $6,010 cost was not refunded. The audit questioned the trip's "reasonableness and necessity."
What gave us pause, though, was this:
Mr. Ross rejected criticism of the foreign trips.
"Yes, I need time off, and I might need to go not only to the South Pole but also to the North Pole," Mr. Ross said. What he learns on such trips benefits students back home, he said. The audit claimed that Mr. Ross canceled the Argentina trip because of "the potential for opposition within the community." But he denied that, saying he was simply too busy to go. "Why would I let some old biddies in the community stop me?" he said.
Mr. Ross criticized Newsday, which reported the audit yesterday, saying it was leaked to discredit him in "a political hatchet job."
"We started teaching Chinese in the first grade, our choir performed at Carnegie Hall, the students put on an event for Darfur, we entered the robotics competition, we have a cosmic ray detector built by students, we added Advanced Placement classes in high school and we started a chess team and it came up second to Jericho," Mr. Ross said. "But no one is talking about any of those things. Instead, it's focusing on a trip I didn't even take." (emphasis added)
Mr. Ross. Public schools demand more accountability for charter schools and voucher schools--but when said accountability is applied to public schools, it becomes a "political hatchet job"? And if you're not willing to answer to "some old biddies in the community", would it be fair to conclude that, no, you're really not accountable to the public?
One last thought. The in-state tuition for CUNY-Brooklyn College is $4,353. For the amount this district is spending per pupil, you could send two kids to college. Congratulations, New York: your tax dollars at work!
Senior dumbness in Arizona
"Is our children learning?" Here in sunny Arizona, apparently they don't learn to avoid doing really, really stupid things.
Police weren't laughing Monday over a supposed "senior prank" by a Peoria High School student they accused of showing up on campus wearing a ski mask.
Police were called and the school, 11200 N. 83rd Ave., was placed in lockdown for nearly 2 ½ hours as more than two dozen officers searched for intruder, fearing that the masked man possibly was armed.
The student, Zubair Hussaini, 18, was arrested in a nearby neighborhood after the masked man fled from the campus, said Mike Tellef, a Peoria police spokesman.
"He told the officers he was not armed and did this as a 'senior prank' after being dared by another student," Tellef said.
Hussaini was taken into custody and booked in a Maricopa County jail on charges of interfering with an educational institution and obstructing governmental operations, both misdemeanors, he said.
Police recovered a ski mask and yellow tee-shirt believed to have been worn by the intruder, but no weapon, Tellef said.
Numbskull. (Hat tip to Education Wonks.)
Posted by Ryan Boots at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Tuesday, May 23
Hawaii Family Struggles With Racism, Failing Public Education System - Hawaii families don't know about their options under NCLB. (more)
Milwaukee's lessons on school vouchers - As one of the few programs in the country, Milwaukee offers a high-stakes test case for both camps. Yet researchers are only beginning to take a comprehensive look at how successful it's been. (more)
Chicago restructuring 185 schools under No Child Left Behind - Nearly a third of the city's public schools will undergo "restructuring" because they've consistently failed to improve test scores under the No Child Left Behind Act, the district announced Monday. (more)
California exit exam stymies trustees - You know the frustration caused by the legal battle over the school exit exam has reached a new high point when a prosecutor urges his colleagues to ignore the law. (more)
Teachers seeking pay hike - With the threat of mayoral takeover hanging over Los Angeles Unified School District, the teachers union has opened contract negotiations with a demand for a 14 percent, one-year raise for its members. (more)
When districts pull sweets from menus, schools lose bucks - While health advocates applaud the decision earlier this month by soft drink makers to voluntarily restrict the on-campus sale of full-calorie drinks nationwide, school administrators are bracing for belt-tightening. (more)
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
It takes parents too to teach - With one year in Hillsborough County public schools behind him, 23-year-old Adam Wood is a rarity. (more)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and change their tune - I have a suggestion for the public schoolteachers of Florida, but they probably aren't gonna like it. They should think about becoming Republicans. (more)
Education Schools Inadequately Prepare Elementary Teachers How to Teach Reading - Ed Week (subscription required) Education Schools Inadequately Prepare Elementary Teachers How to Teach Reading. (more)
Smaller Not Necessarily Better, School-Size Study Concludes - Ed Week (subscription required) When it comes to high school size, smaller might not be better, concludes a national study presented yesterday at a conference sponsored by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. (more)
Heavy turnover in New York's principal ranks - More than half the principals in the New York City public school system have left their jobs over the past five years, opening the way for a remarkable influx of often younger newcomers, some in their 20's and 30's with impressive credentials but little teaching experience. (more)
Half of Indiana's schools failing - About half of Indiana's schools and more than a quarter of the 293 school districts failed to meet federal expectations in math and reading in 2005, including a growing number of Marion County township schools. (more)
USA Today: Teachers learn dated methods - Most U.S. undergraduate teacher-education programs give prospective teachers a poor foundation in reading instruction, according to a new study by a Washington-based non-profit group that is working to reform the nation's teacher-education system. (more)
Former teachers union official sentenced - Former Washington Teachers' Union official Gwendolyn M. Hemphill was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison for helping embezzle more than $4 million from union coffers and using some of the money to buy lavish personal items. (more)
Posted by Daily News at 05:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
If I Can Get Along with Union People, You Can Too (Mike Antonucci)
I started the Education Intelligence Agency nine years ago, with the idea that those who needed to know about the teachers’ unions would welcome a single, comprehensive source for such information. One-stop shopping, as it were.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)May 22, 2006
Bioscience High School
No, really--that's the name of the school:
At the new Bioscience High School in Phoenix, students will tap data into laptop computers and splice DNA in labs that would rival what is typically seen at colleges and research facilities.
The school building itself will be a teaching tool, with invisible sound barriers between study areas, cooling and plumbing systems left exposed for study, and impressions of fossils set into concrete walls.
The school, which opens in August, is in an ideal location: the heart of a downtown Phoenix biomedical campus that includes the global headquarters of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative, a joint research endeavor of the state's three universities.
"They're going to be right smack in the middle of it," said MaryAnn Guerra, chief operating officer of TGen, whose daughter, Raleigh, 14, plans to attend Bioscience High. "It's just such a wonderful opportunity."
Pretty cool. The school's website is here.
Words of Wisdom from Dick Morris (Clint Bolick)
School choice activists gathered recently at a conference hosted by the Gleason Foundation were treated to words of wisdom from an unlikely source: Bill Clinton’s political guru, Dick Morris.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Breaking up is hard to do?
Connecting the dots...
School Me